Is AI Art Piracy? Your Favorite Media Giants Say Yes

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It's pretty clear that, when someone owns a copyright, they want to prevent their works from being copied. This includes any derivative works that aren't being made for a fair use purpose. Yet, how does this look when we add generative AI to the mix? Our laws don't have an answer for us yet. Nonetheless, courts have, and are in the middle of, responding to this controversy. The Times has reported that media conglomerates Disney and Universal Studios have filed a joint lawsuit against Midjourney, an AI image generation tool. Founded in 2021, the platform raked in $100 million in revenue last year through its subscription model. It relies on a massive dataset of media that isn't available for public scrutiny, making it questionable whether any data was sourced with the approval of the original copyright holders. It's this fear that has led many independent artists to "poison" their images with the hopes of tricking these generation tools into producing inc...
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What’s The Industry Brief?


The entertainment industry is complex. Very complex.

There are plenty of articles that expose the hardships associated with the
entertainment industry. One example is the ongoing voice actor strike,
impacting studios such as Activision Blizzard and Epic Games in protest of AI
and unfair compensation. Another example is the conflict between law and
soccer, as incidents such as the corruption behind the 2022 FIFA World Cup
have turned entertainment to politics. It can even hit closer to home with your
favorite music artist! They’re not safe either, as the lawsuit levied against Ed
Sheeran in 2023, albeit not successful, puts into question the legality of simple
chord progressions.

My name is Sebastian Lorenzo. I’m an aspiring law student who is deeply
passionate about entertainment law. The scope defined by the word
“entertainment” is hard to completely nail. It often shares similarities with
intellectual property law - thus, most copyrights and trademarks are involved.
Yet, it also deeply roots itself within contract law, employment disputes,
marketing, privacy concerns and international law.

That’s a lot for a lawyer to keep up with. It’s even more difficult for an industry
professional.

As a certified Non-Lawyer™, I try my best to learn how the law pertains to
some of my favorite forms of media, actively improving my knowledge and
keeping up with news on my favorite music and games. The law, however, is
not Non-Lawyer™ friendly. Since our system uses an unpopular language
known as “Legalese,” deciphering the rule in a case, general common law, or
even just the U.S. Code becomes a task involving expert detective skills and
many Thesaurus look-ups. The job of lawyers is to employ these skills -
though, not every independent artist has access to a lawyer.

My aim is to translate from “Legalese” to an easy-to-read journalistic format.
The law affects everyone, regardless of whether we understand it or not. If we
don’t understand the law behind the entertainment industry, we have a
chance of making a costly mistake. I can’t provide legal advice, but I can
direct people to the resources to find legal advice. This way, no one uploads
their creative work without “downloading” general legal principles.

Part of this aim involves some activism. As I’ll discuss in future articles, U.S. law
can be quite outdated when dealing with intellectual property. Our Founders
could not have foreseen games projected on a digital monitor, motion films
using 3D animation, or the entire existence of “mumble rap.” It’s the job of
representatives to help adjust our laws to accommodate these innovations.
Sometimes, however, this isn’t their priority.

I hope what you read on this blog proves informative not just on boring ol’ law,
but on how the industry as a whole works. Beyond the credits of every great
film, song, game, book, etc., is a multitude of roles that went into creating that
piece of media. Each of those individuals had to know the law behind what
they’re doing. What am I allowed to write? What am I allowed to record? How
do I publish this work? How do I credit other people? These are questions that
inevitably must be answered.

My task is to brief you on this wild industry so you can find the answers to
those questions.

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