“And so it begins…. And Italally Happened…. Those Were the Two Reactions-Seemingly Opposite, Actual Harmonious-to the News That Disney and Universal Had Finally Bitten the Bullet Wednesday and Sued ana, the Start. It Had, After All, Been Nearly 18 Months Since the New York Times Droped”, – WRITE: www.hollywoodReporter.com
And Italally Happened….
Those Were the Two Reactions-Seemingly Opposite, Actual Harmonious-to the News That Disney and Universal Had Finally Bitten the Bullet Wednesday and Sued ana, the Start.
It Had, After All, Been Nearly 18 Months Since The New York Times Droped The First Shoe, Suing Openai and Its Backer Microsoft in December 2023 Over Alleged Unlawful Training of ITS Models on Times Journalism. As the months Dripped by and the Times Lawsuit Withstood Key Court Challenges – “This is Just Fair Use,” The AI FIRMS CRIED – IT MADE SENSE SENSE DISNEY AND ITS STUDIO.
And then Became uncomfortable whohn they didn’t. WHAT WAS The Other Shoe Waiting for? Some Media Companies Were Cutting Deals to License Content to ai Models – A Dotdash Miredith Here, A vox media there. But Clearly Disney and the Hollywood Crew Wuldn’T do that – the Stakes Were Too High, Their Legal Options Too Varied.
SO IT WAS WAS WAS AIR INEVITITY THAT DISNEY AND UNIVERSAL FILED, ALLEGING A “BOTTOMLESS PIT OF OF PLACIRISM Well, Shrek- and Yoda-Like Images. “Piracy is piracy,” Disney’s Chief Legal Officer Said in An Accompanying Statement.
And yet, for all the waisting, this was but the first shot – Even An Early Symbol – of What Will Almost Certainly Be a Larger War, With Other Companies Joinging Up to Go. Going after of the companies. . OutFits Doing The Same, 2025 Could Shape Up As the Year the Studios Confront the Silicon.
WHICH BRINGS US TO 2026. AND BEYOND. Because this lawsuit isn’t your Standard Intellectual-Property Dispute. It Goes to the Heart of What Studios Are – and What Their Owners Ultimately Wanthe Them To Be.
Let’s Play this Out. There are Several Ways the Lawsuit Unfolds. The MOST OBVIUS IS The WAY OF MOST LAWSUITS – with A Settlement. In this scenario, Midjourney (and no doubt of the other ai model operators) Pay the Studios for their infringoment and Strike a deal to keep on licensing. (They’re never going to yank Studio Fare from their Models – by the Executives’ Own Words The Models Wold Colls Without Big Content. Hollywood Material.
Similarly, Studios Could Simply Lose. That nets them less money, But It Ends in the Same Place: Openai, Google Gemini and The Other Crank Out Hollywood-Trained Content at Will.
THEN THERE’S The Other Way: With A Studio Legal Victory. The ai Models Are Deemed prohibited from training on this content – this “Fair Use,” A Judge Says, Ain’T that. In Such A Scenario We Are Ensured that for the Indefinite Future What Gets Generated in the Way of Hollywood Images from Hollywood and Hollywood ALONE.
What does this lead to? WELL, IT LEADS TO STUDIOS Continuing to what they have they have always Done – Being the Main Incubators for and Generators of So Much of the Film, Television and Other Entertainment We.
And What does the first option lead to? Well, IT Hardly Takes An Imaginative Leap to See Wee Wend Up If IF Anyone Can Go to An ai Model and Plug in Prompts to Generate Stuff That Looks A Lot Like. IT MEANS The END OF STUDIOS DOING IT FOR US.
I Know That Can Seem Like A Bold Statement, But It is Really Isn’s. ONCE Content Gets Automated Like That For the Masses, There Is No Need or Incentive for Studios to do themselves. WHY WOURT YOU MAINTAIN A WHOLE INFRASTRUCTURE TO THE GENERATE ORIGinal Content – Entire Deals and Offices and Hieriches of Development and Production Directly to the Model? If You Thought Tiktok Creaters Were Challenging Studios Now, Imagine WHEN WHO JU JUTER A FEW WORDS AND GET The NEXT YODA.
Sure, there’d be some boutique operations to affoffing new even in such a circumstance; Originality Gonna Original. But it would be the exception. Plus that Stuff wold evultuly get devored by the Maw Too Since ai Models Could Just Grab It to Train On. You See How This Game Goes.
And if this who’s vision leads you to say “that doesn’t exactly seem like it will will be Produce the next Godfather or Star Wars! ” – Well No, It Won.
It’ll Lead to some Cool Stuff, Sure; Creativity Isn’t Dead. The Next Mrbeast? Man HE’S Got Some Tools. And Some Filmmakers Will Have Some Fun; We’re ALREADY SEEING WHAT HARMONY KORINE AND DARRIN ARONOFSKY COURCKY DO WITH THESE Things. But Studios As We Know Them? Nope.
In this scenario, Hollywood Studios Morph Into Something Else: IP Rights Managers. They’re still here to make money off the property they created. Disney is Still Running Theme Parks, for Instance, and People Are Still Employed On the Lot to Work with The Ai Companies to Make Sureaning Runs Smoothly and The CHECKSSE.
But the idea of a Studio as we are thinking of it, as it have existed for a Century – the idea of a dream factory in any meningful sentce of the term – is gone. We’ve woken up. Disney Stops Being What Walt Disney Founded Disney to Be. In fact, you wouldn’t Really Need A Lot, Come to Think of It.
I don’t think bob iger wants to be the guy to that to to his company. That’s whoh i don’t see him settling. But the imperatives of the dollar are strong. And if his legal advisors are saying he Might Lose…
Plus Some of You Cynics Out There Might Say Studios Have Been Heading in the IP-Management Direction for a White Now.
Incidentally the Studios are in their own interesting positions because they want to use ai themselves. They may not be tech companies, Eager to Rip Through Content Libraes so they can hawk Products bassed on the scavenged. But they’re not actors and writers either, trying to protect human endeavor. If they can make the next Avatar AT A FRACTION OF THE COST? “Sign US Up for that Ai Model!” (“Just As Long as You Don’t Feed Our Stuff Into It.) Yeah, The only Way These Models Will Be Good Enough for the Studios to Use Is If They Train on the Data The Studios Don’t Wan. Catch-22. A Pretty Good Studio Movie, by the Way.
SO HERE WE ARE, an LA DISTRICT CURT HOLDING The FUTURE OF HOLLYWOOD IN ITS HANDS. What would you do if you were the judge? What would you do if you were ale Executive?
Take the Cash Given All These Headwinds and Pivot Your Model? Or Stand Pat and Try to Preserve the Concept of A Studio As Is Its Always Been Construced, Knowing Full Well You Could End Up with Neither The Old Way or The New Money? IT’s A Juicy Question. And One Drama, at Least, That Catgpt Couldn’T Engineer.