01 Oct OpenAI’s New Video Tool Features User-Generated ‘South Park,’ ‘Dune’ Scenes. Will Studios Sue? [The Hollywood Reporter]
BY WINSTON CHO
October 1, 2025 | The new version of OpenAI‘s video generator allows users to create content featuring intellectual property owned by studios across Hollywood, an aggressive escalation of the company’s encroachment onto the entertainment industry.
Sora returns copyrighted characters and materials from major TV shows and movies, including Rick and Morty, South Park and Dune. OpenAI expected users to generate videos of studio-owned intellectual property, though it blocks content that uses the likenesses of actors and other recognizable faces, according to the company. Copyright owners must opt out of having their content appear. Talks are underway.
Varun Shetty, OpenAI’s head of media partnerships, said the company is “working with rights holders to understand their preferences for how their content appears across our ecosystem.” He added, “People are eager to engage with their family and friends through their own imaginations, as well as stories, characters, and worlds they love, and we see new opportunities for creators to deepen their connection with the fans.”
The opt-out process escalates the company’s cavalier approach to intellectual property rights, potentially setting up a legal battle between Hollywood’s biggest studios and the AI start-up. It’s part of a larger shift relating to the erosion of the protections that copyright owners typically wield over their works.
The materials upon which OpenAI teaches its system is a black box. It said that Sora 2 is trained on “diverse datasets,” including information that the company partnered with third parties to access and is “publicly available on the internet.”