In an escalation of its legal battle against artificial intelligence (AI) companies, Walt Disney Co. on Wednesday sent a cease-and-desist letter to Google, accusing the search behemoth of systematically violating its copyrights through AI services.
In the letter obtained by Variety, Disney attorneys allege Google has been “infringing Disney’s copyrights on a massive scale” by using the entertainment company’s vast library of copyrighted material without authorization to train generative AI models. The letter further claims Google is exploiting these models to distribute unauthorized copies of Disney’s protected works to consumers.
The allegations encompass some of Disney’s most valuable intellectual property, including characters from blockbuster franchises such as Frozen, “The Lion King,” “Moana,” “The Little Mermaid,” “Deadpool,” “Guardians of the Galaxy,” and “Star Wars.” Disney provided examples of images allegedly generated through text prompts in Google’s AI applications, including depictions of Darth Vader.
“Well, we have been aggressive at protecting our IP, and we have gone after other companies that have not honored our IP, not respected our IP, not valued it. And this is another example of us doing just that,” Disney CEO Robert Iger said in an interview on CNBC. “We have been in conversation with Google, basically expressing our concerns about this. And, ultimately, because we didn’t really make any progress, the conversations didn’t bear fruit, we felt we had no choice but to send them a cease-and-desist.”
Google representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Disney’s allegations.
Disney’s legal action demands immediate cessation of what it describes as unauthorized copying, public display, distribution, and creation of derivative works featuring Disney characters across Google’s AI services, including YouTube’s mobile app, YouTube Shorts, and the main YouTube platform. The company is also insisting that Google implement “effective technological measures” to prevent future copyright violations across its entire suite of products.
The letter specifically highlights Google’s promotion of a viral trend involving AI-generated “figurine” images, pointing to a post by Google CEO Sundar Pichai. Disney contends that Google provided Gemini AI prompts encouraging users to participate in this trend, making it easy to generate images of Disney’s copyrighted characters without permission.
“Disney will not tolerate the unauthorized commercial exploitation of its copyrighted characters and works by so-called AI services,” the cease-and-desist letter said. “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.”
The action against Google represents Disney’s latest salvo in an expanding legal campaign against AI companies. The entertainment giant previously sent similar cease-and-desist letters to Meta Platforms Inc. and Character.AI and has joined forces with NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. Discovery in litigation against AI companies Midjourney and Minimax over copyright-infringement claims.
The timing of Disney’s action is notable given the company’s recent business relationship with OpenAI, highlighting the complex and sometimes contradictory positions major corporations are taking as they navigate the intersection of AI and intellectual property rights.
