As reported in the Wall Street Journal, we have already backtracked the changes to our policy on copyrighted content less than a week after Openai launched its SORA 2 AI video generation model on September 30th.
In a blog post published on October 3rd, Sam Altman responded to a wave of copyright concerns surrounding Sora 2 and announced that Openai would update its copyrighted content policy to opt in. In other words, SORA will reject any prompts containing copyright unless the copyright holder specifically grants the copyright owner.
In a blog post, Altman said: “Like the opt-in model for comfort, it also gives more control over the character's generative model, but I'm very excited about this new kind of “interactive fan fiction” and I want this new engagement to give them a lot of value.
“In particular, we would like to acknowledge the incredible creative achievements of Japan. We are impressed by how deeply the relationship between users and Japanese content is!”
The statement and policy changes came after numerous videos of Sora-generated videos were posted online last week, including characters from Japanese games and anime studios, including IPs such as Nintendo, Pokemon, One Piece, Demon Slayer, and Studio Ghibli. One such video sums up the overall situation. A 10-second clip of Sam Altman surrounded by AI-generated, photo-realistic, pokemon packs says, “I hope Nintendo doesn't sue us.”
This video is just one of many examples, but finding Sora-generated videos with Marvel and Disney characters is much more difficult. As reported by Automaton, SORA appears to have rejected prompts containing references to American IPs, but it appears that Japanese IPs have not received the same treatment in the past week.
Shiozaki, a Japanese lawyer and member of the House of Representatives, called for action to protect his creatives in a post on X (formerly Twitter) translated by Automata. [Sora 2] I personally felt it would bring serious legal and political issues. If you want to protect the major Japanese creators and the domestic content industry and help them develop further, you need to take action immediately. (Why can't you display Disney and Marvel characters?) ”
Ahead of the release of Sora 2, the Wall Street Journal reported Openai's first opt-out policy for copyright holders. This means that if the copyright holders did not opt out, their content was assumed to be permitted at the SORA prompt.
In contrast, real people, such as celebrities and other public figures, were opted in by default. This means Openai does not allow users to create those videos without permission. The threat of copyright infringement lawsuits due to the differences in policy is likely the reason Openai changed the song this weekend.
