The Motion Picture Association (MPA) is demanding that OpenAI must immediately ban the use of copyrighted material to program its new video-generating tool, Sora 2.
Once Sora 2 was released last week, many users quickly used films and TV shows as base material to test Sora 2’s abilities and videos quickly flooded the Internet using those copyrighted materials. MPA, though, insists that such use is clearly a violation of copyright laws and that OpenAI is obligated to prevent its customers from reusing TV and films in their personal AI productions, The Wrap reported.
“Since Sora 2’s release, videos that infringe our members’ films, shows and characters have proliferated on OpenAI’s service and across social media,” said MPA Chairman and CEO Charles Rivkin. “While OpenAI clarified it will ‘soon’ offer rightsholders more control over character generation, they must acknowledge it remains their responsibility – not rightsholders’ – to prevent infringement on the Sora 2 service. OpenAI needs to take immediate and decisive action to address this issue. Well-established copyright law safeguards the rights of creators and applies here.”
Some of the video generated by Sora 2, for instance, have placed Pokémon character Pikachu into famous movies, such as Saving Private Ryan and Star Wars.
OpenAI chief Sam Altman addressed the copyright issue and claimed that his company is preparing to launch tools to give rights holders more power to prevent Sora 2 users from using copyrighted material without permission.
“We have been learning quickly from how people are using Sora and taking feedback from users, rightsholders and other interested groups,” Altman wrote on Friday. “We of course spent a lot of time discussing this before launch, but now that we have a product out we can do more than just theorize.”
OpenAI’s initial practice has been to require copyright holders to specifically contact OpenAI and directly state that they do not want their material open for use by Sora 2 users, meaning that OpenAI thinks all material is open for Sora 2 users unless the creators ask to withhold it.
But rights holders want it the other way around. They want all copyrighted material automatically banned unless the rights holder doesn’t mind if Sora 2 users have access to copyrighted material.
Altman notes that the field of AI-generated video tools being widely available for everyone to use is a new world, and OpenAI is going through a period of “trial and error” as it navigates the new world its software has created.
Ultimately, Altman feels that Sora 2 is so good that rights holders should be thrilled that the public would want to use their characters and films to make amateur videos.
“We are hearing from a lot of rightsholders who are very excited for this new kind of ‘interactive fan fiction’ and think this new kind of engagement will accrue a lot of value to them,: he wrote, “but want the ability to specify how their characters can be used (including not at all).”
The studios, though are clearly uneasy about the idea that just anyone can use their creations without permission or licensing payments.
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