OpenAI released its short-form video app Sora earlier this week. It shot straight to #1 on Apple’s App Store. This cutting-edge tool is poised to become the leading platform where anyone, anywhere can easily create and share short videos with artificial intelligence-generated content. The release has unleashed overwhelming opposition. Americans care most about the risk of copyright infringement since this could result in costly lawsuits and legal battles over IP.
Since Sora’s launch on Friday, visitors have been entranced with Sora’s beautifully realistic, immersive videos. These works call into question normative notions of safety versus censorship in digital space. Users have begun flooding the app with AI-generated clips that incorporate popular brands and animated characters, raising questions about the legality of such creations. One especially famous example has OpenAI CEO Sam Altman standing next to a bunch of Pokémon. As an aside, and a very funny one at that, he adds, “Don’t sue us Nintendo.” In the next scene, we see the fast food franchise clown from hell, Ronald McDonald, fleeing from police in a burger-themed automobile.
To protect against this risk, OpenAI implemented many safeguards. Prior to Sora’s launch, they provided select talent agencies and studios the opportunity to opt out. Unlike other platforms, this new policy would finally give content creators the opportunity to opt their copyrighted material out of the platform. OpenAI claims to be committed to respecting takedown requests made through its Copyright Disputes form. This would give content owners a much easier way to flag materials they don’t think should be on the platform.
Varun Shetty, OpenAI’s head of media partnerships, sounded like a man ready to tackle the copyright crisis head-on. He stated, “We’ll work with rights holders to block characters from Sora at their request and respond to takedown requests.” This is a positive indication that OpenAI understands the complicated AI ecosystem involving user-generated content and IP.
Legal experts are expressing concern about what Sora’s operation could mean. Jason Bloom, a partner with Haynes and Boone, chairs their national intellectual property litigation practice group. He was a very vocal advocate of emphasizing the dangers here. He remarked, “You can’t just post a notice to the public saying we’re going to use everybody’s works unless you tell us not to,” emphasizing the need for clear permissions in creative endeavors. He noted the challenges faced by artists and creators, stating, “You can imagine why Taylor Swift wouldn’t want — even if pornography is off the table — wouldn’t want videos of her purporting to say things she doesn’t say.”
Those were some of the concerns raised by Stanford Law School Professor Mark Lemley. He stressed that copyright owners could lose all rights to their characters that appear in fan-made videos. All of this raises fundamental questions about the applicability of current copyright laws to these rapidly evolving technologies, especially with respect to AI.
OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman has already expressed an understanding of the myriad ways users might choose to use Sora. We expect lots of different people to experiment with lots of different approaches and to decide what works best for them. We do genuinely want to bring the same standard to everyone and put it in the rightsholders’ hands to dictate how things should work moving forward. This announcement further highlights OpenAI’s goal to develop a better framework that fosters innovation while honoring existing copyright and intellectual property rights.
Sora certainly has quick momentum on its side. In the coming weeks we’ll see how the app addresses the nuances of copyright law. Your users are all of the people who can’t wait to play creatively with their favorite stories and characters. Varun Shetty noted that “people are eager to engage with their family and friends through their own imaginations, as well as stories, characters, and worlds they love,” highlighting the potential for user-generated content to foster deeper connections between creators and audiences.
Sora’s meteoric ascent raises serious questions about ownership and control. It takes aim at copyright norms more broadly in our time of user-generated content. The flood of AI-generated clips using familiar characters puts a real burden on brands that want to defend their intellectual property.