Disney and OpenAI announced earlierThree-year authorization and investment agreementOn the surface, it seems like a dream collaboration between technology and entertainment, but a closer look at the two companies' drastically different stances on "copyright" reveals that this marriage is actually full of political calculations. Disney's $10 billion investment is not really about creating more film content through Sora, but rather about regaining "control" over IP copyrights in the development of AI technology.
The giants who protect copyright the most vs. the startups that love to walk the line.
As is widely known, Disney is the biggest advocate of US copyright law and is almost obsessive about protecting intellectual property. In contrast, OpenAI has admitted in regulatory documents that "it is impossible to train a model without using copyrighted material" and has even asked creators to voluntarily "log out" their data so that it will not be used for training.
Why is Disney willing to embrace this company it once considered a "pirate"? Analysis suggests this is related to the political climate. With the Trump administration promising to ease AI regulations, and even potentially using executive orders to block strict state AI laws, Disney realized it could no longer rely solely on the federal government to protect its copyrights.
Since the law may not be reliable, Disney has chosen a more pragmatic approach: to work directly with the leaders driving the technology and to develop the rules from within.
Why OpenAI? Because it's "easy to control".
Another key factor is "choosing the right opponent." Just one day before announcing its collaboration with OpenAI, Disney had sent a cease-and-desist letter to Google.
Why sue Google while investing heavily in OpenAI? The reason is simple: Google is too big and difficult to control. Google's parent company, Alphabet, currently has a market value of over $3 trillion. Disney is at best on par with it at the negotiating table, and it's difficult to demand that Google obey its orders.
In contrast, while OpenAI boasts a large reputation, its situation is quite fragile. At the same time, OpenAI is currently facing competition from AI players such as Google Gemini and Anthropic, and its services are burning through cash at an alarming rate (the cash it burns through in five years is expected to exceed the combined profits of Uber, Tesla, Amazon, and Spotify before they became profitable).
For OpenAI, which desperately needs funding and legitimacy, Disney's $10 billion and IP licensing offer are a lifeline. For Disney, this gives them significant leverage in negotiations.
According to Axios, Disney has gained considerable control in the agreement, with the two parties establishing a "joint steering committee" that will allow Disney to substantially monitor and decide how its IP is used on ChatGPT and Sora.
Analysis: This was a defensive offensive.
In my opinion, this deal was a smart move by Disney CEO Bob Iger. He capitalized on OpenAI's current anxieties about its business model and seized the opportunity to gain a foothold.
This is similar to the previous trend of news publishers signing contracts with OpenAI, preferring to collect licensing fees to stem the bleeding rather than wait for an uncertain verdict in court. But Disney went a step further—it didn't just license; it used investment and committee mechanisms to directly intervene in the core of AI development.
Disney is sending a signal to the market: the era of AI licensing for audiovisual entertainment content has arrived, and we have already set the most favorable rules of the game.
