Disney, is well aware of the writing on the wall that copyright is going to continue to become increasingly harder to enforce, as generative ai distances itself from brute mimicry, and because infringers can generate new versions faster that takedown notices can be filed. Their alternative is to either be steamrolled, or leverage their IP while it has worth in order to latch on to the AI market. Plus, they give a solid explanation: it is free advertising when there are guardrails on how the characters can behave/say/portray (which is the advantage of the deal — I assume a similar one with Google, Microsoft or Apple will be forthcoming too).

When a true “leader” big or small emerges, every bit of capital will flock to it, leaving a burned out nest of ai company husks. But hey…maybe this time will be completely different. (And upon consideration, I think this is exactly why. All their deals are with the husks, while keeping their IP to leverage with the winner.)

Dysneys characters are entering the public domain, they can either cash out now or not at all.

Mickey mouse is now copyright free, pluto is in two weeks, then pretty much the whole roster by 2030 https://michelsonip.com/news/disney-characters-in-the-public...

Because they didn't get any money from the daycare and they will get money from OpenAI when you make your Sora video. That's all there is to it.

As an aside: Winnie the Pooh is public domain, so he can do drugs if he wants. But he shouldn't wear a red shirt while he does.

They smell blood in the water and just bought their next gen studios for $1B

Sora is a heavily censored model so presumably they believe they can stop that sort of content being generated.

They’re not. It will take them so long to negotiate the terms of using important IP that Sora will become obsolete.

They say that if you were to parachute Sam onto North Sentinel Island and come back in five years to check on him, he'd be their king.