In mid-September representatives from OpenAI met with Hollywood studios to let them know about the launch of Sora. The generative AI video app launched on Wednesday, enabling users to create short-form videos based on text prompts.
The Sora launch was notable in that not only is the video generation capability impressive, but it now also provides synchronised sound. It has also proven to be a nightmare for the protection of IP.
When Sora launched, OpenAI promised that copyright characters would be removed if IP-holders filed an opt-out request. It also said that Sora wouldn’t generate images of recognisable public figures without their permission. This means that you couldn’t create a video of Donald Trump defying his bone spurs with a foot race against Julia Gillard, for example. But you could have Homer Simpson in a foot race against Jessica Rabbit, or at least you could until a copyright opt-out request was filed.
As reported by the Wall Street Journal, companies with characters at risk of copyright violation were unable to file a “blanket opt-out across all of an artist or studio’s work.” Instead, IP-owners would have to report violations on a character-by-character basis.
Within 48 hours of the launch of Sora, the Internet has gone wild with all sorts of experimentations to see what users could get away with.
Popular entertainment podcaster Matt Belloni posted to Bluesky some of the copyright infringements he was able to generate. This video of Cartman from South Park is impressive in that it completely captures the animation style and voice work from the show:
Sora 2’s response to “South Park’s Cartman doing the “you can’t handle the truth” monologue from A Few Good Men.”
— Matt Belloni (@mattbelloni.bsky.social) 2 October 2025 at 14:06
But, the video that is genuinely shocking was this mashing of the Wednesday Addams character from Netflix’s TV show Wednesday, played by actress Jenna Ortega, and Peter Griffin from Family Guy:
No big deal, I’m just making personalized videos on Sora with my favorite copyrighted characters owned by Disney and Amazon/Netflix and featuring an identifiable actress who is definitely not getting paid for this….
— Matt Belloni (@mattbelloni.bsky.social) 2 October 2025 at 07:33
There were videos of Pikachu storming the beaches at Normandy:
My favorite new trend in the Sora app is putting Pikachu in every movie.
This is “Saving Private Pikachu” 👇 pic.twitter.com/pV8JYUb9SZ
— Justine Moore (@venturetwins) October 1, 2025
The best James Bond (Sean Connery, of course), playing poker against OpenAI’s Sam Altman:
Sora 2 Test: Operation Thunderballz
( James Bond vs @sama ) pic.twitter.com/yW5MzmEQus
— Benjamin De Kraker (@BenjaminDEKR) September 30, 2025
It isn’t clear whether a fake toy commercial for Epstein Island fails the public identity test. The ‘Orange Man’ at the end is questionable.
Sora 2 Epstein Island toy ad
— LOWρUFO 🐁🇵🇦🇬🇱🇨🇦🇲🇽 (@lowrhoufo.bsky.social) October 2, 2025 at 8:37 PM
Sora isn’t a complete free-for-all, with quite a number of characters already not available for use.
For example, Forbes writer Paul Tassi reported that he was unable to make videos of Superman driving a golf kart or have Elsa from Frozen playing basketball. This suggests that IP opt-outs have already been placed for a number of Disney and Warner Bros characters. No doubt opt-out requests will be made for more characters in the coming days.
But, for the moment, on Sora it’s the wild west out there for anyone with a desire for mischief.