AfriPulse
While the big AI projects are keen to show off their latest generative AI tools, which can create movie-like scenes and depictions based on text prompts, publishers and producers are less than enthused about unauthorized depictions of their IP, which they say is tantamount to theft of their material.
The latest pushback on this front comes from the Motion Picture Association , which represents all of the major Hollywood studios, including Disney, Sony, Universal and Netflix.
As per Variety, on Friday, the MPA sent a strongly worded letter to China-based developer ByteDance, which calls on the company to implement more restrictions on the use of its new Seedance 2.0 AI video generation tool, which is being used to generate scenes depicting characters from popular movies and franchises.
Seedance 2.0, which ByteDance launched earlier this month, is able to produce impressive re-creations of movie scenes, including complex effects and camera shots, based on text commands.
It has also been used to create similar scenes with recognizable actors and characters, which is what prompted the MPA to take stronger action.
As reported by Variety: “Speaking on behalf of its seven member companies, the MPA sent a cease and desist letter to ByteDance’s Culver City, Calif., office demanding that it stop training on the studios’ movies and TV shows, and that it implement safeguards to stop users from generating copyrighted material.”
The letter is an escalation of the MPA’s initial attempts to prompt action from ByteDance. The organization also issued a statement on February 12th, noting that Seedance 2.0 has engaged in “unauthorized use of U.S. copyrighted works on a massive scale.”
As per the MPA: “By launching a service that operates without meaningful safeguards against infringement, ByteDance is disregarding well-established copyright law that protects the rights of creators and underpins millions of American jobs.”
The MPA called on ByteDance to immediately cease its infringing activity, to which ByteDance responded by noting that it does respect copyright protections, and would take steps to secure this.
But that assurance is clearly not enough, and the MPA is now looking for more direct action from ByteDance to stop misuse of the AI tool for infringing content.
It’s the latest in the rising battle for IP protection in the AI era. Rights holders are now fighting a potentially losing battle with AI tools that have been trained on billions of hours of existing content in order to re-create similar scenes and depictions at the command of users.
And apparently, not all of that material has been accessed legally. According to reports, Meta, for example, used a tool called Library Genesis, frequently abbreviated to LibGen, to access pirated versions of copyright-protected books, in order to expand its datasets for training its AI models.
The allure for these AI projects is that this enables users to generate more familiar-looking and sounding AI content. But that also comes in violation of the rights of creators who have spent years honing their craft and building established characters and entities.
The pushback from the MPA makes sense, as it works to represent its members and enforce their rights. But with so many AI projects now in use and able to access IP-protected work, combating such violations is an increasingly impossible task. Making a significant impact will likely take years of litigation and legal wrangling.
Source: SocialmediaToday | Read the Full Story…
