I am quite active on TikTok and recently came across a huge growing trend of “Disney AI”. Dozens of adorable images created by users in ways that resonated with them. With its growing popularity, I became intrigued. I too took a deep dive into seeing how any image in your camera role could be generated as an illustration in “Disney Pixar” form. After some research, I realized this trend on TikTok was of AI-generated pictures in a “Disney Pixar” style. None of these images included any form of a Disney or Pixar logo. Currently, the TikTok trend is seeing dozens of images of babies or couples recreated in a Pixar type illustration. It is my understanding that currently there is a huge influx of Disney Pixar logos also being used on these AI-generated images. Which understandably raises concerns about copyright infringement. However, I am talking about those images that do not include the “Disney Pixar” logo.
So the question then becomes, is there an argument that all of these images that are merely only made in a “Disney Pixar” style, are they protected under fair dealing? Can these types of AI-generated images be saved under the parody defence?
As per Co’operstock, there are two basic elements of parody. One is the evocation of existing work while exhibiting noticeable differences. And second, the expression of mockery or humour. I would argue there is a good argument to be made if someone, such as myself, recreates an image from their camera role using the Bing AI Image Generator tool. Anyone who views that image wouldn’t think it was a still from a Disney Pixar movie or advertisement. So it could be argued the images created without the Disney logo have noticeable differences and fulfill this requirement of the test. In terms of the second requirement, depending on the nature of the image reproduced in a Disney-inspired way humour can be argued.
A quick Google search yielded quite a few news articles and photos of Disney Pixar-inspired memes. A lot of which were actually quite humorous. Fair dealing requires users to be fair. In my opinion, using AI to create Disney inspired images, without the Disney logo, is arguably quite fair. Of course, I am assuming here that Disney has not copyrighted this method of “illustrative art”. However, as long as those who come across these reproduced images do not have “real” confusion on who the images belong to, the argument of fair dealing has some merit.
Understandably the public associates this illustrative style with Pixar films. However, I would be interested to see if this trend can ever actually be completely shut down because the Bing Image creator already seems to be trained with creating artwork that closely resembles Pixar’s style. Until now recreating these sorts of images required skill, but now anyone with a browser can type of a few words into a box and recreate any image as a Pixar image.
For fun, I recreated some of my wedding photos in Pixar-inspired illustrations. I will have to say the Bing Image Creator is extremely well trained to pick up on every small detail you want it to add. For example, I was able to get the image tool to nail my Indian bridal outfit, my husband’s turban and many other complicated aspects of our wedding portraits.
One thing I found quite interesting was Microsoft’s pledge to cover legal responsibility for any of their users who face a breach of copyright due to the material being produced by the Bing Image Creator. While that is a telling step towards continuing to allow the Bing Image Creator to produce Pixar-inspired art. Some prompts into the generator will undoubtedly continue to infringe on copyright. Take for example if one attempted to produce an image of “Boo” from Monsters Inc as an older girl in university.
I understand artistic style is not necessarily outright protected by copyright and a human element is an essential component of copyright claims. But if you specifically promote the generator to design images to replicate a preexisting style, the output will surely share some clear characteristics of the original work. I have read online that Disney attempted to get Microsoft to ban the use of the word Disney in its produced images. But all that lead to was the word being used in different fonts or having a letter or two blurred out, while still ultimately clearly resembling the Disney logo. While keen users of embraced this style of AI, I would be interested to see how Disney moves to further restrict the production of more and more images.
Communications Law