Looks to me like OpenAI drew their guardrails somewhere along a financial line. Generate a Micky Mouse or a Pikachu? Disney and Pokemon will sue the sh*t out of you. Ghibli? Probably not powerful enough to risk a multimillion years long court battle.
I thought Disney had the rights to publish Ghibli movies in the US.
They did, but the rights expired. GKIDS now has the theatrical and home video rights to Studio Ghibli films in the US (except for Grave of the Fireflies).
Mickey Mouse (the original one) is out of copyright, as of last year, AFAIR.
I consider this article quite strong proof that generative AI is closer to copying than it is to creating a new derivative work.
For the downvotes:
https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ01.pdf
“Copyright does not protect • Ideas, procedures, methods, systems, processes, concepts, principles, or discoveries”
Not sure why this is even controversial, this has been the case for a hundred years.
Strong with the weak, weak with the strong.