The Deal Era (and the Fight Before It): Why Hollywood Can’t Stop Generative AI

"The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend." - Abraham Lincoln

Is Midjourney the next Disney character?

Something fascinating just happened in Hollywood, and like with all things AI, no one saw it coming this fast.

According to Axios, Disney and NBCUniversal have officially sued Midjourney for copyright infringement. The complaint accuses the generative AI company of using protected characters like Simba, Aladdin, and the Minions to train its model and generate lookalike images.

It’s the first major lawsuit by Hollywood studios against a generative AI platform. And yet, somehow, it feels like the beginning of the end of the resistance, not the start of a war.

Because while Midjourney is being sued, other generative AI platforms are already being courted.

Around the same time, Music Business Worldwide broke the news that Universal Music Group, Sony, and Warner are in talks to license AI music tools like Suno and Udio. That’s not litigation. That’s deal-making.

And here’s what’s really going on: the studios have realized they can’t stop this. So they’re trying to contain it. Sue what you can’t control. Cut deals with what you can. But eventually, everything moves toward the same outcome.

As I see it, we’re not just entering the “deal era.”We’re watching the fight that always happens before the deal.

Because nothing changes a "cease and desist" into "let’s make a deal" quite like watching your audience fall in love with what you’re trying to stop.

Chips...and credits...on the table.

When the Culture Moved Faster Than the Lawyers

Here's what really happened: Midjourney didn't ask for permission to change everything. It just did. While lawyers were drafting cease-and-desist letters, millions of people were already using it to create stunning visuals. Agencies started sneaking it into their workflows. Even some studios began quietly experimenting with it, despite all the legal noise.

Suno and Udio pulled the same move in music. They exploded across TikTok and Instagram with AI-generated songs that sounded so good, people couldn't believe they weren't human-made. The culture moved first, and the institutions are still playing catch-up.

The uncomfortable truth for traditional media? Much of their audiences don't really care whether something was AI-assisted. If it's good, it's good. That's it. No asterisks, no footnotes, no moral hand-wringing. Speed, volume, and audience approval are all favoring the tools, not the gatekeepers.

Here lies affordable open AI?

The Commodification of Creativity

What’s happening now isn’t just about law or licensing. It’s about something deeper: the reclassification of creativity itself.

These lawsuits & licensing deals aren't just about getting access to cool new tools. They're about controlling the flow of creativity itself. What used to be this wild, unpredictable, deeply personal process is now becoming a product line that can be packaged, licensed, restricted, or monetized depending on whatever deal gets signed.

Think about it: creativity is literally being turned into a commodity. Something you can buy wholesale, distribute at scale, and filter through terms and conditions. If Midjourney starts signing exclusive deals with Disney, suddenly the type of images you can create and legally use might be shaped by corporate partnerships rather than your artistic vision.

Music's heading down the same path. If Suno gets absorbed by a major label or locked into restrictive licensing deals, the melodies, genres, and vocal styles available to regular people could end up being algorithmically curated to serve existing catalogs and commercial interests.

This isn't just about what's possible to create anymore. It's about what's permitted to create. And that's the real cost of turning creativity into a commodity: it stops being a wild, unpredictable force and becomes something measurable, marketable, and ultimately manageable.

When creativity becomes a product, whose vision gets to define it? Spoiler alert: probably not yours.

What This Means for the Rest of Us

If you've been experimenting with these tools, congratulations. You were right all along, and now everyone else is scrambling to catch up. The platforms you've been using are about to get a major legitimacy boost, which could mean better monetization options, brand partnerships, and creative opportunities that didn't exist before.

But here's the catch: remember when these tools felt like the wild west of creativity? That era is probably ending. Once the lawyers and revenue teams get involved, expect more restrictions, content filters, and rules about commercial use. The open-source revolution might start looking more like a corporate product.

You might wake up one day and discover that the tool you loved for its freedom is now behaving more like a corporate asset, because that's exactly what it's become. What once felt like an endless creative playground could become a walled garden, shaped by licensing agreements and revenue models.

Creators out...corporations in?

The Trade-Off We're All Making

Is this good or bad? Honestly, it's both.

The increased funding and legitimacy will definitely elevate these platforms. We'll get better tools, more features, and clearer paths for serious creators to make money. But we should also expect more rules, higher costs, and the inevitable hand of institutional control reshaping what was once a grassroots movement.

This is the pattern that always plays out when culture outgrows its infrastructure. The artists and experimenters build something amazing, regular people run with it and make it their own, and eventually the institutions come knocking. Not to contribute or collaborate, but to control and monetize.

It's the classic Silicon Valley story, but this time it's happening to creativity itself.

The New Creative Order

Make no mistake about what we're witnessing here. This isn't just about a few licensing deals or partnership announcements. We're watching the creative power structure reorganize itself in real time.

For the first time in decades, it's the platforms and their users who have the leverage. Tools now matter more than traditional pipelines. Speed and originality are beating scale and resources.

The industry didn't see it coming. They tried to resist it, then tried to regulate it, and now they're trying to buy their way into it.

The game is "Let's Make A Deal", and for once, it's the platforms who are calling the shots. For now.

-Belton

Not Disney characters...yet.

If This Resonates With You

If any of this hits home, if you believe creativity shouldn’t be confined to boardrooms, if you believe the future of storytelling should belong to everyone, not just the few...

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