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Yahoo
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Disney and NBCUniversal Sue AI Company Midjourney Over Copyright Violations
The Walt Disney Co. and NBCUniversal have filed a joint lawsuit against AI company Midjourney citing alleged copyright violations. Midjourney is an image-generating service that, according to the suit, could 'function as a virtual vending machine' to replicate copyrighted characters. This is the first major legal action studios have taken against an AI company. Both studios are seeking an undisclosed amount of maximum statutory damages. The legal filing is here. More from IndieWire Patricia Arquette Took Her Directorial Debut All the Way to TIFF - Then, She Had to Recut It Chanel Returns to New York City for Its Star-Studded 18th Annual Tribeca Artists Dinner 'By helping itself to Plaintiffs' copyrighted works, and then distributing images (and soon videos) that blatantly incorporate and copy Disney's and Universal's famous characters — without investing a penny in their creation — Midjourney is the quintessential copyright free-rider and a bottomless pit of plagiarism,' the lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, states. 'Piracy is piracy, and whether an infringing image or video is made with AI or another technology does not make it any less infringing.' One example of possible copyright infringement included in the lawsuit involves Disney's 'Star Wars' properties. Per the filing, if a Midjourney user asks the service to create an image of Darth Vader in a scene, 'Midjourney obliges by generating and displaying a high quality, downloadable image featuring Disney's copyrighted Darth Vader character.' And since Midjourney is about to launch a new video service feature, the company could start making videos with these copyrighted characters, or, as the suit states, 'Midjourney is very likely already infringing Plaintiffs' copyrighted works.' Both Walt Disney Co. and NBCUniversal claim that Midjourney is opting not to implement protective measures to prevent users from generating copyright-infringing images. Allegedly, the studios asked Midjourney to take action but the company instead opted to 'continue to release new versions of its Image Service, which, according to Midjourney's founder and CEO, have even higher quality infringing images.' Horacio Gutierrez, the senior executive vice president and chief legal and compliance officer for Disney, said in a statement, 'Our world-class IP is built on decades of financial investment, creativity and innovation—investments only made possible by the incentives embodied in copyright law that give creators the exclusive right to profit from their works. We are bullish on the promise of AI technology and optimistic about how it can be used responsibly as a tool to further human creativity. But piracy is piracy, and the fact that it's done by an AI company does not make it any less infringing.' Kim Harris, the executive vice president and general counsel of NBCU, added, 'Creativity is the cornerstone of our business. We are bringing this action today to protect the hard work of all the artists whose work entertains and inspires us and the significant investment we make in our content. Theft is theft regardless of the technology used, and this action involves blatant infringement of our copyrights.' The Motion Picture Association has not changed its preexisting law against copyrighting and piracy since the rise of AI. In 2023, legal representatives for the MPA said that 'at present, there is no reason to conclude that these existing doctrines and principles will be inadequate to provide courts and the Copyright Office with the tools they need to answer AI-related questions as and when they arise. At the current time, however, there is no need for legislation or special rules to apply copyright law in the context of AI.' The MPA Copyright Office did not find distinguishing differences between generative AI such as Midjourney and the use of post-production AI tools, much of which were used in the recent 2024 Oscar nominees such as 'The Brutalist' and 'A Complete Unknown.'Best of IndieWire Guillermo del Toro's Favorite Movies: 56 Films the Director Wants You to See 'Song of the South': 14 Things to Know About Disney's Most Controversial Movie Nicolas Winding Refn's Favorite Films: 37 Movies the Director Wants You to See
Express Tribune
03-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
Winners' Oscar thank-you speeches over the years
At the Oscars over the years, we have seen it all with the winners' speeches, ranging from dull, endless, cringe, heartwarming or, when we're lucky, hilarious. A few stick in the mind, from the astounded gasps of an 11-year-old Anna Paquin to Patricia Arquette's rousing feminist oration that brought Meryl Streep to her feet for a standing ovation. But, taken together, an AFP analysis of nearly 2,100 speeches dating back to March 1953, of which 80 per cent are by men, reveals winners most often thank the Academy, their family, the film crew or a film influence. Pithy and epic Speeches averaged nearly three sentences in the 1950s but since winners have become more talkative on stage: in 2024 they reached 15 sentences. On Tuesday, this year's nominees were urged to stick to a 45-second speech. Daniel Kaluuya, Best Supporting Actor for Judas and the Black Messiah in 2021, delivered the most epic speech ever, running for almost 70 sentences. In three minutes 30 seconds, the British actor who has Ugandan parents thanked some 30 people from God to his team, taking in his family and "everyone (he) loves, from London Town to Kampala". At the other extreme, nearly 200 winners took the fast route back to their seats, delivering one-sentence speeches. In 1954 when Titanic trio Charles Brackett, Walter Reisch and Richard Breen won Best Original Screenplay, Brackett barely got out a "Thank you" before the trio was ushered aside on stage. Women, meanwhile, are the longest orators, averaging over nine sentences compared to seven for men. By category, Best Actress winners deliver the longest speeches, with 18 sentences, two and a half more than their male counterparts. All about gratitude Naturally, most thank-you speeches are all about saying thanks - the word "thank" appears in nearly 95 per cent of all speeches in AFP's analysis. Of the five per cent remaining, some were being more imaginative in their choice of words – Vincente Minnelli for example expressed his "gratitude" in 1959 when he received the Best Director Oscar for Gigi. Arthur Harari won in 2024 with Justine Triet for Best Original Screenplay (Anatomy of a Fall) - his partner had given all the thank-yous. Looked at by category, the Best Actresses with their longer speeches are also the ones who say thank you the most, using "thank" 6.2 times on average. Positively loquacious with her more than 60 sentences, Halle Berry dedicated half of those to thanks in 2002 when she became the first Black actress in Oscar history to win, for Monster's Ball. After opening with two "Oh my Gods" followed by "this moment is so much bigger than (her)," she dedicated her award to "every nameless, faceless woman of colour that now has a chance because this door tonight has been opened". In contrast, Frances McDormand, not one to mince her words, almost skipped the "thanks" entirely when she won her first of three top actress awards for Fargo in 1997 by the Coen brothers. She did slip one in right at the end – "Thank you for acknowledging our work" - and had dished out a congratulation to producers for "allowing directors to make autonomous casting decisions based on qualifications and not just market value". From God to Spielberg The giver of the golden statuette, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, is the most frequently cited entity in speeches. In the 1950s it features in one out of 12 speeches; in the last decade, one out of two. Another frequent reference is to "God," appearing nearly 190 times in over 140 speeches. More than six out of 10 occurrences refer to the religious figure, among which slightly less than half are as part of phrases with "God bless" to the audience, America, the Academy. Among all instances of "God", one in five corresponds to the phrase "Oh (my) God", which does not directly refer to the religious figure. Among individuals, Hollywood titan Steven Spielberg - a nominee 23 times and winner three - is the most mentioned name, coming up around 40 times. AFP
Yahoo
07-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Patricia Arquette Made a Pact With Her Actor Ex-Husband to ‘Eat Garlic If We Had to Do Love Scenes' With Others; But Only She Followed
Patricia Arquette recently told 'Severance' co-star Adam Scott during a game of 'Hot Ones Versus' that her actor ex-husband once screwed her over after they made a pact about doing sex scenes in movies and television shows. 'I was married to somebody at the time and we were very young and impressionable people,' Arquette said. 'We made a deal that we were going to eat garlic if we had to do love scenes, so I ate garlic before I had to kiss Ewan McGregor and I'm like, 'I'm so sorry, but I told my husband I was going to have to eat some garlic.'' More from Variety Luca Guadagnino on 'Queer's' Ban in Turkey: 'I'm Going to Fight the Institution Who Wants to Tarnish [Cinema's] Inevitable Powers' Patricia Arquette to Lead Murdaugh Family Scripted Series at Hulu Patricia Arquette Finally, Finally Explains 'Lost Highway': 'In This Man's Mind, a Woman Is Always the Monster' 'Then he had to do a love scene and I'm like, 'Well, did you eat garlic?' He's like, 'I thought we were kidding,'' she continued. 'I was like, 'What?!'' Arquette did not name her ex-husband, but the 'Hot Ones' video showed red carpet photos of her alongside Nicolas Cage. The actors were married from 1995 until 2001, and Arquette starred opposite McGregor during that time in the 1997 horror movie 'Nightwatch.' It was their first and only movie together and would've been shot during her marriage to Cage. 'Nightwatch' starred McGregor as a law student working a night job as a security guard who makes it his mission to track down a serial killer. Arquette co-starred alongside Josh Brolin, Lauren Graham and Nick Nolte. Watch Arquette and Scott's full 'Hot Ones Versus' interview in the video below. Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week Grammy Predictions, From Beyoncé to Kendrick Lamar: Who Will Win? Who Should Win? What's Coming to Netflix in February 2025
