Disney Hits Google with Cease-and-Desist Over Alleged Widespread Copyright Violations

Disney is taking legal action against Google, claiming the company has used its AI tools to copy and distribute Disney content without permission.

According to Variety, Disney’s lawyers sent a cease-and-desist letter to Google on Wednesday, demanding that the alleged infringement stop immediately.

“Google is infringing Disney’s copyrights on a massive scale, by copying a large corpus of Disney’s copyrighted works without authorization to train and develop generative artificial intelligence (‘AI’) models and services, and by using AI models and services to commercially exploit and distribute copies of its protected works to consumers in violation of Disney’s copyrights,” the letter reads.

The letter was sent by the law firm Jenner & Block on behalf of Disney to Google’s general counsel.

Disney claims that Google’s AI systems and apps have generated images of its characters without authorization. These include characters from Frozen, The Lion King, Moana, The Little Mermaid, Deadpool, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Star Wars. The company included examples of images it says were created using Google’s AI tools, such as images of Darth Vader.

In its letter, Disney demanded that Google “immediately cease further copying, publicly displaying, publicly performing, distributing, and creating derivative works of Disney’s copyrighted characters” in outputs from its AI services, including YouTube and YouTube Shorts. Disney also wants Google to put “effective technological measures” in place to stop future copyright violations.

“Disney will not tolerate the unauthorized commercial exploitation of its copyrighted characters and works by so-called AI services,” the letter states. “Here, Google’s conduct is particularly harmful because Google is leveraging its market dominance across multiple channels to distribute its AI Services and using the draw and popularity of infringed copyrighted works to help maintain that dominance.”

Disney also pointed to a viral trend promoted by Google, where users were encouraged to create figurines of Disney characters using AI.

The company says Google supplied prompts through its Gemini AI tool, making it easier for users to generate these images, which Disney says is another form of copyright infringement.

Have something to add? Let us know in the comments!