BEWARE: OpenAI's "Sora" Text-To-Video AI Model May Be The Most Dangerous Threat Yet!

Sora is an AI model from OpenAI that can create realistic video scenes from simple text instructions. As such, Sora is bound to raise a myriad of potential intellectual property issues as well as name and likeness and invasion of privacy issues depending on the extent to which it is exploited by the user.

OpenAI states that Sora can generate videos up to a minute long while maintaining visual quality and adherence to the user’s prompts. Sora is able to generate complex scenes with multiple characters, specific types of motion, and accurate details of the subject and background. The AI model can understand not only what the user has asked for in the prompt but also how those things exist in the physical world, and it has an understanding of language enabling it to accurately interpret prompts and generate compelling characters that express human emotions. Sora can also create multiple shots within a single generated video that accurately demonstrate and enhance characters and visual style. With all of the photos and information available on social media and the internet at Sora's disposal, the possibilities are endless. 

Most concerning is that, like ChatGPT and other AI applications, the more Sora is used to more it will learn, grow and advance to become better and smarter at production - so it seems inevitable that Sora will eventually have the ability to produce HD-quality and feature-length film productions.

For example, the user can write a sentence stating details such as "it was a dark and stormy night when through the foggy window of a castle we see a maniacal scientist flipping a switch to bring a robot to life" - and the more detailed the description the more detailed the video Sora can provide with photo-quality production. Initially this may appear innocuous enough enabling a parent to easily turn their child's playtime story into a video or allow a struggling screenwriter who might never otherwise get a film produced to use Sora to create a feature length film. However, as some commentators have pointed out, taking it a step further, a corporation might try to take an image of someone famous (or just anyone attractive they think might help sell their product), and then have Sora create a video commercial showing that person endorsing the product and promoting it. On the darker end, a co-worker could create a video of a fellow employee appearing to do all sorts of illicit activities and then anonymously bring it to the attention of the employer. Imagine the chaos that could be created in the political arena (as if there is not already enough confusion and misinformation in circulation). Or worse, imagine all of the carnal, erotic activities that could be generated by a user (or even a stalker) to make any person in their sights appear to be doing anything the user's imagination can conjure. 

AI has already disrupted copyright law norms for creators particularly in the music space, and has challenged established intellectual property concepts in the entertainment world and beyond. Sora would seem to be poised to expand those problems exponentially. Without some type of common sense regulations in place, whether from the government or the industry (or a combination thereof), Sora could be used by the most vile of individuals to create videos that could defile, mislead and scare people, or even instigate riots based on the appearance of something that is completely fabricated but entirely realistic in appearance. 

It might not be long before there is more clarity on the matter since lawsuits will inevitably make their way through the courts, and these cases may establish some parameters for the use of Sora. Like other current AI platforms, Sora is somewhat crude and imperfect, but by design AI improves and gets “smarter” the more it is used. Sora may still be in the early horse & buggy stage now, but it is quickly advancing to the Tesla level - at which point chaos is very likely to ensue. 

Wallace Collins is an entertainment lawyer and intellectual property attorney based in New York. He was a songwriter and recording artist for Epic Records before receiving his law degree from Fordham Law School. www.wallacecollins.com 

UNDERSTANDING TERMINATION RIGHTS UNDER U.S. COPYRIGHT LAW

The 1976 Copyright Act provides for the termination of copyright transfers. It entitles content creators to reclaim their copyrights - regardless of any contract stating otherwise –after certain time periods. So, even if an author, artist, musician, photographer or songwriter signed a contract which purports to transfer all rights in a work for perpetuity, the Copyright Act provides that the author of the work (or the author's heirs) can terminate that grant and demand that the rights revert in a shorter period of time. Authors and creators are now entitled to terminate their contractual transfers and demand back control of their copyrights: authors can terminate their book publishing contracts, songwriters can demand return of their musical compositions from music publishers and recording artists and record producers can demand return of their sound recordings from the record companies.

Generally speaking, for copyright grants made on or after January 1, 1978 (the effective date of the 1976 Copyright Act) the termination period is 35 years under Section 203 of the Copyright Act. For pre-1978 works Section 304(c) of the Copyright Act, says that a copyright owner (or his or her heirs) can terminate all grants, licenses or transfers of beginning on the 56th year after that assignment was made. Termination may be exercised anytime during a 5 year period beginning at the end of either the 35 year or 56 year period from the execution of the grant (as applicable) or, if the pre-1978 grant concerns the right of publication of the work, then the period begins on the sooner of 35 years after publication or 40 years after execution of the grant. Although there are certain formalities which must be complied with to effectuate transfer, this essentially means that recording artists and songwriters were entitled to start exercising their right of termination on post-1978 works as of the start of 2013. 

The big exception to the termination right is if a work was done as a "work-for-hire.” Section 101 of the Copyright Act of 1976 delineates what types of works by their nature are incontestably works for hire. It is essentially a two part test: (1) was the work created by an employee within the scope of his or her employment, and; (2) if not, is it (a) one of the nine enumerated work-for-hire classes of works and (b) is there a written agreement signed by the author acknowledging the work for hire relationship. Included on the list of nine enumerated categories of works that are works for hire are collective works, compilations and motion pictures. Not included on this list are books, photographs, songs and sound recordings.

There are ongoing legal battles over how termination rights affect the book, comic book and motion picture fields. Not unexpectedly, the entertainment business companies are not pleased with the copyright termination provision and the inevitable ramifications thereof.

With respect to songs and music publishers, some litigation has already been decided. In Scorpio Music S.A. v. Willis (Case No. 11 CV 1557 (C.D. CA 2012), California Federal District Judge Moskowitz determined that original Village People member, Victor Willis, could terminate his transfers and recapture a direct copyright interest in many of his group's songs, including "YMCA." In this case, after Willis notified Scorpio that he was terminating the prior transfers, Scorpio sued arguing that Willis could not terminate because a majority of each song's authors had not also agreed to terminate their transfers. The court sided with Willis, ruling that an author can unilaterally terminate the transfer of his share in a copyrighted work without his co-writers.  Although the Scorpio decision addressed a fairly narrow point concerning multi-author transfers, the decision opens the way for most songwriters to get their composition copyrights returned and sets the stage for the bigger battles looming on the recorded music side of the business. The copyright termination procedures apply to the separate and equally lucrative sound recording copyrights transferred to record labels as part of typical recording artist contracts over the years. Since the term “sound recordings” is not explicitly contained in the enumerated work for hire category list, practitioners representing record companies will need to try to find other ways to justify any claim that sound recordings are indeed works for hire in order to preclude termination by artists.

The termination rights of the author or creator of a copyrighted work are generally subject to a 5 year window. Termination must be made effective within the termination window or the right to terminate the grant is forfeited. To be effective, the author must serve a written notice of termination on the original record company or publisher (and/or any successors) no more than 10 and no less than 2 years prior to the effective date stated in the notice. The notice of termination must state the effective date of termination. Perfection of the termination requires that a copy of the written notice also be filed with the U.S. Copyright Office prior to the effective date of termination.

Although the termination rights of an artist under the 1976 Copyright Act would only be effective for the U.S. territory, the size of the U.S. consumer market still makes this a valuable right to reclaim.            

Wallace Collins is an entertainment and intellectual property lawyer based in New York. He was a songwriter and teenage recording artist for Epic Records before receiving his law degree from Fordham Law School. 

Tel: (212) 661-3656;  www.wallacecollins.com