Hollywood vs OpenAI: Disney, Warner Bros., and other studios say no to Sora

Hollywood studios and talent agencies are pushing back hard against OpenAI 's Sora 2 , the AI video generation app that launched last week and quickly rocketed to over 1 million downloads. The Creative Artists Agency, which represents stars like Scarlett Johansson and Tom Hanks, called the platform a "significant risk" to creators' intellectual property rights.

Disney has already opted out of having its copyrighted material appear on the platform, sending a letter to OpenAI stating it never authorised the company to use its characters and has no obligation to "opt-out" under copyright law. Warner Bros. and Universal have similarly taken legal stances, having already sued AI image generator Midjourney over copyright infringement earlier this year.

Agencies demand compensation and control
The controversy centers on Sora 2's original "opt-out" system, which allowed users to generate videos featuring copyrighted characters unless rights holders specifically requested removal. Users created viral clips of everything from SpongeBob SquarePants cooking meth to Sam Altman grilling Pikachu, sparking immediate legal concerns.

"Does OpenAI believe that humans, writers, artists, actors, directors, producers, musicians, and athletes deserve to be compensated and credited for the work they create?" CAA questioned in its statement. United Talent Agency echoed this sentiment, calling Sora's approach "exploitation, not innovation."

OpenAI scrambles to add guardrails
In response to mounting pressure, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced the company would give rights holders "more granular control over generation of characters" and implement stricter content restrictions. The Motion Picture Association urged OpenAI to take "immediate and decisive action" to prevent copyright infringement.

However, the damage may already be done. The app's rating has plummeted to 2.9 stars on Apple's App Store, with users frustrated by new restrictions. Meanwhile, the legal precedent is clear: entertainment companies have successfully sued AI platforms before, and OpenAI's ask-for-forgiveness-later approach could prove costly.