The Japan Commercial Broadcasters’ Association issued a statement against OpenAI’s Sora 2 and other similar AI video generation models, warning of the dangers that their unregulated use poses, both to Japan’s content industry and society as a whole. It demanded that OpenAI and other AI start-ups take action to prevent unauthorized training of AI models on Japanese anime and other copyrighted content, calling on AI companies to take proactive steps to remove copyright-infringing AI-generated content from the internet.
OpenAI publicly released Sora 2 on September 30, and people were soon sharing 20-second clips generated using the new model across social media. Many of these clips contain the likenesses of Japanese anime and video game characters (including popular characters like Mario and Pikachu), prompting concerns about copyright infringement. A couple of weeks later, the Japanese government made a formal request to OpenAI, calling on the American tech company to cease infringing upon Japanese IPs. This was followed by a statement on October 28 from Japan’s Content Overseas Distribution Association (a group representing companies including Bandai Namco, Square Enix, and Studio Ghibli), which demanded that OpenAI stop unauthorized training of Sora 2 on the copyrighted IPs of its members.
On November 26, the Japan Commercial Broadcasters’ Association, which consists of 207 companies including Japan’s major TV channels, also issued a statement regarding Sora 2 and generative AI. As reported by Asahi Shimbun, the group expressed concern over copyright infringement, as well as the negative impacts of generative AI video models on Japan’s creative industries and news broadcasters.
The statement points out that Sora 2 has generated “video content that is identical or highly similar to anime and other content owned by our members,” adding that “we believe this to be the result of Sora 2 learning from content, to which our members own the rights, during its training and development period.” It argues that the very act of training an generative AI model on copyrighted content without permission, and then making it so that said model can be used by people to generate similar content that can be distributed on the internet, "constitutes exploitation for commercial purposes."
Acknowledging OpenAI’s offer to allow companies to retroactively “opt out” of their content appearing in Sora 2’s AI videos, the association argues that “opt out measures cannot prevent copyright infringement” (as the infringement has already occurred).
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The statement goes on to highlight the economic and personal damage that generated videos featuring copyrighted characters can cause, mentioning that this negatively impacts many people in creative industries (including original authors, screenwriters, lyricists, performers and producers). It also points out that such AI generated content can also defame or cause damage to a brand, character or person depending on the nature of the video, highlighting concerns that as gen-AI technology improves, viewers might not be able to tell the difference between officially produced content and AI generated content. The association says that gen AI models’ reproduction of copyrighted IPs ultimately has the "potential to destroy Japan's content production culture and ecosystem."
The statement also warns against the threats to society posed by deepfake videos, particularly highlighting the dangers posed by fake disaster footage, convincing-looking fictional news reports featuring real newscasters, imitations of politicians, and videos designed to stir up hate towards foreign residents. The broadcasting association says that “such content can stir up public anxiety, distort people’s judgement and severely undermine the value of fair broadcasting by broadcasters.” They express concern that deepfake videos featuring trusted newscasters and personalities from current affairs programs could also be used by criminals (such as by fraudsters to entice people to invest in schemes).
The Japan Commercial Broadcasters’ Association finished their statement by “strongly urging generative AI developers” to cease training their models on copyrighted content without permission. They also call for AI companies to take measures to prevent the generation of content resembling copyrighted works and to make proactive efforts to remove existing AI generated content that infringes on IPs, “particularly from sites operated by the AI developers themselves.” They also call on companies like OpenAI to “respond sincerely to claims made by member companies in regard to copyright infringement caused by generative AI.”
This is not an issue exclusive to Japan. This week, IGN reported on "leaked" gameplay clips of GTA 6, some of which had gone viral and secured millions of views on social media. And it is a problem that affects all entertainment. Last month, IGN reported on physicist Brian Cox, who went public with complaints about YouTube accounts that had used AI to create deepfakes of him saying “nonsense” about comet 3I/ATLAS. Similarly, Keanu Reeves recently hit out at AI deepfakes of the John Wick star selling products without his permission, insisting "it's not a lot of fun." In July, it was reported that Reeves pays a company a few thousand dollars a month to get the likes of TikTok and Meta to take down imitators.
Last month, Nintendo took the unusual step of issuing an official statement seemingly in response to comments from Satoshi Asano, a member of Japan’s House of Representatives. In a deleted social media post he subsequently apologized for, Asano accused Nintendo of “avoiding using generative AI to protect its IP” and "engaging in lobbying activities with the government" over the increased use of generative AI in the gaming industry.
Nintendo denied this, but did warn it would take “necessary actions against infringement of our intellectual property rights.”
“Contrary to recent discussions on the internet, Nintendo has not had any contact with the Japanese government about generative AI,” Nintendo said. “Whether generative AI is involved or not, we will continue to take necessary actions against infringement of our intellectual property rights.”
Disney and Universal have sued the AI image creator Midjourney, alleging that the company improperly used and distributed AI-generated characters from their movies. Disney also sent a cease and desist letter to Character.AI, warning the startup to stop using its copyrighted characters without authorization.
“A lot of the videos that people are going to generate of these cartoon characters are going to infringe copyright,” Mark Lemley, a professor at Stanford Law School, told CNBC. “OpenAI is opening itself up to quite a lot of copyright lawsuits by doing this.”
Earlier this year, the famously litigious The Pokémon Company formally responded to the use of Pokémon TV hero Ash Ketchum and the series' theme tune by the Department of Homeland Security, as part of a video showing people being arrested and handcuffed by law enforcement agents. "Our company was not involved in the creation or distribution of this content," a spokesperson told IGN, "and permission was not granted for the use of our intellectual property."
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Verity Townsend is a Japan-based freelance writer who previously served as editor, contributor and translator for the game news site Automaton West. She has also written about Japanese culture and movies for various publications.
source https://www.ign.com/articles/openai-and-sora-2s-use-of-anime-ips-could-destroy-japans-content-production-culture-and-ecosystem-says-japans-biggest-broadcasting-association