Disney slaps Google with a cease and desist, claiming ‘massive’ copyright infringements

As Disney inks a Billion dollar deal With OpenAI licensing its characters for AI-powered videos, the entertainment giant is also going after Google. Disney sent a cease and desist letter to Google on Wednesday, alleging that Google’s AI models are violating its copyright protections on a “massive scale.”

“Google’s AI services are designed to make free use of Disney’s intellectual property. Google has refused to implement any technological measures to mitigate or prevent copyright infringement, even though such measures are readily available and used by Google’s competitors,” the letter said. “Instead, Google continues to directly exploit Disney’s copyrights for commercial gain.”

Google has released a major overhaul of its AI products with Gemini 3, which includes the second generation of its popular products Nano Banana Pro Artificial intelligence image model. There has been a huge rise in the popularity and power of creative AI tools this year. The new models give users the ability to create highly realistic photos and videos with AI technology. This ability has long been a concern for copyright and intellectual property holders, and improvements in AI models this year have brought these concerns into sharper focus. Disney, one of the largest owners of intellectual property, has become central to such legal and ethical debates.

The letter outlines Disney’s concerns that Google is using its position as a market leader to create and publish artificial intelligence content. As YouTube’s parent company, Google “floods the market with infringing works, and reaps enormous profits and other value from its illegal, harmful and destructive exploitation of Disney’s copyrighted works,” the letter says. Disney says it brought its concerns to Google’s attention months ago, but the tech company did nothing in response, leading to a cease-and-desist letter this week.

Don’t miss any of our unbiased technical content and lab reviews. Add CNET As Google’s preferred source.

Disney, along with Universal and Warner Bros.Lawsuits have already been filed against Mid-flight AI over similar breach concerns, describing the AI ​​company as a “bottomless pit of plagiarism”. Disney’s complaint in a new cease and desist letter addresses the same issue that Google AI users can use its models to create content very similar to its copyrighted characters like Darth Vader. But while Disney is taking legal action against Google, it has also explored licensing opportunities with other AI companies like OpenAI.

Disney announced on Thursday that it has signed on Billion dollar deal With OpenAI, one of Google’s biggest competitors. The deal gives OpenAI permission to use more than 200 popular Disney characters in its AI images and Sora videos, including those from Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars. The deal makes Disney a “key customer” of OpenAI, offering ChatGPT to Disney employees and select Sora AI videos to Disney Plus. This is a markedly different approach than Disney’s previous AI-related legal actions.

CNET reached out to Google for comment but did not receive a response before publication. (Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging that it infringed Ziff Davis’s copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)

For more, see New pricing For Disney Plus, Hulu Live, ESPN and our guide to understanding Copyright and artificial intelligence.