Disney’s $1 billion investment in OpenAI, announced Thursday morning—and its decision to let more than 200 Disney, Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars characters appear inside the Sora video generator—is more than a licensing deal. According to copyright and AI law expert Matthew Sag, who teaches at Emory University’s law school, the deal marks a strategic realignment that could reshape how Hollywood protects its IP in the face of AI-generated content that threatens to leech their legally protected magic.
“AI companies are either in a position where they need to aggressively filter user prompts and model outputs to make sure that they don’t accidentally show Darth Vader, or strike deals with the rights holders to get permission to make videos and images of Darth Vader,” Sag told Fortune. “The licensing strategy is much more of a win-win.”
