On Wednesday, Disney issued a cease-and-desist letter to Google, asserting that the technology company has engaged in copyright infringement. According to the letter, Disney accuses Google of violating its copyrights on a “massive scale” by employing AI models and services to commercially distribute unauthorized images and videos.

The letter states, “Google operates as a virtual vending machine, capable of reproducing, rendering, and distributing copies of Disney’s valuable library of copyrighted characters and other works on a mass scale.” It further alleges, “And compounding Google’s blatant infringement, many of the infringing images generated by Google’s AI Services are branded with Google’s Gemini logo, falsely implying that Google’s exploitation of Disney’s intellectual property is authorized and endorsed by Disney.”

Disney claims that Google’s AI systems have infringed upon characters from popular franchises such as “Frozen,” “The Lion King,” “Moana,” “The Little Mermaid,” and “Deadpool,” among others.

In response, Google did not directly confirm or deny the allegations but indicated it plans to “engage” with Disney. A spokesperson remarked, “We have a longstanding and mutually beneficial relationship with Disney, and will continue to engage with them. More generally, we use public data from the open web to build our AI and have built additional innovative copyright controls like Google-extended and Content ID for YouTube, which give sites and copyright holders control over their content.”

This legal action coincides with Disney’s announcement of a $1 billion, three-year agreement with OpenAI, which will integrate Disney’s iconic characters into OpenAI’s Sora AI video generator.