Google has removed many AI-generated videos featuring famous Disney characters from YouTube, following legal pressure from Disney. The move comes after Disney sent Google a cease and desist letter accusing the company of copyright violations. According to reports, dozens of videos disappeared from YouTube late last week. The videos used popular characters such as Deadpool, Moana, Mickey Mouse, and figures from the Star Wars universe.
Disney’s letter accused Google of “infringing Disney’s copyrights on a massive scale.” The complaint did not only focus on YouTube hosting the videos. Disney also claimed that Google used Disney-owned content to train its AI models, including Veo and Nano Banana, without permission.
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This action shows how serious Disney is about protecting its intellectual property. Earlier, the company had taken similar steps against other AI platforms. Disney previously raised concerns about Character.AI and is currently suing AI image and video companies Midjourney and Hailuo.
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However, Disney is not completely against AI-generated content. Recently, Disney announced a new partnership with OpenAI. Through this deal, Disney characters will officially appear in OpenAI’s tools, including Sora and ChatGPT. This suggests that Disney is open to using AI technology when it is properly licensed and controlled. For Google, the takedown highlights growing pressure on tech companies to be more careful with copyrighted materials. Creating content that uses copyrighted characters without permission can lead to serious legal trouble.
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