By Peter Hossli
The United States leads the world in science, music, film, and art. One reason is that its Founding Fathers enshrined copyright in the Constitution nearly 240 years ago. The idea was revolutionary: intellectual work deserves protection and compensation. Those who create with their minds should be able—if they do it well—to get rich doing so.
No company defended this principle more fiercely than Disney. For decades, the Hollywood giant lobbied for longer copyright terms. If anyone printed Mickey Mouse on a T-shirt without a license, Disney’s lawyers came knocking.
That is now changing. The company behind Bambi, Star Wars, Pixar, and the Marvel superheroes is investing one billion dollars in the AI company OpenAI. More importantly, Disney is allowing OpenAI users to generate short videos featuring its characters.
This is seismic. Disney, of all companies, has concluded that in the age of artificial intelligence—where content is endlessly remixed—traditional copyright has become nearly impossible to enforce.
For everyone who writes, draws, photographs, tinkers, or makes films, this marks a historic turning point. The central question is no longer whether their work can be copied, but rather: how can money still be made without enforceable copyright?
Disney is sketching out an escape route—at least for large corporations. Instead of suing, as the New York Times has done, the house of Mickey Mouse is getting into bed with the supposed enemy. As an investor, it is betting that the future belongs to AI companies.
Those without icons like Mickey are left watching from the sidelines.