Disney hits Google with cease and desist claim for ‘massive’ copyright infringement

Disney sent a cease and desist letter to Google on Wednesday, alleging that the tech giant had violated its copyright, Variety reports.

Disney is accusing the tech giant of copyright infringement on a “massive scale,” alleging that it used artificial intelligence models and services to commercially distribute unauthorized images and videos, according to the letter seen by Variety.

“Google acts as a virtual vending machine, capable of reproducing, displaying, and distributing copies of Disney’s valuable library of copyrighted characters and other works on a large scale,” the letter said. “Compounding Google’s blatant infringement, many of the infringing images generated by Google’s AI services are labeled Google’s Gemini, falsely indicating that Google’s exploitation of Disney’s intellectual property is licensed and approved by Disney.”

The letter claims that Google’s AI systems are abusing characters from “Frozen,” “The Lion King,” “Moana,” “The Little Mermaid,” “Deadpool,” and more. Google did not respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment.

The move comes on the same day that Disney signed a three-year, $1 billion deal with OpenAI that will bring its iconic characters to the company’s Sora AI video generator.