In the latest episode of the “Daily Variety” podcast, variety journalists analyze the recent Jousts between Hollywood and major AI companies in a raging copyright warfare in federal courts. Reporter Ethan Schampfeld will classify who is rising among cast members on Saturday Night Live, who is there, and who is out as the late-night flagship completes season 51 players.
Variety’s senior media writer, Gene Madaus has been covering AI-related lawsuits on a daily basis since 2023. They are also looking into recent news that Warner Bros Discovery has joined Disney and NBCuniversal in an infringement lawsuit against AI company Midjourney.
Maddaus explains that the central question of many conflicts is whether they use existing copyrighted works to train AI databases and platforms, violating copyright laws. Advocates of the AI realm have argued that it falls under the “fair use” standard, which limits the restrictions that copyright holders can impose, particularly in the context of journalism and media.
“The big question people are trying to understand is that is is that AI itself trains copyright infringement? And certainly there are many people in Hollywood unions that I think it is. There are things called human art campaigns. “The legal litigation we’ve seen so far doesn’t support that perspective. There were two federal decisions in June. Both are basically transformative and therefore fair use.
Spangler points out that Hollywood’s biggest entertainment conglomerate must follow a subtle line of trying to regulate AI overreach without limiting its unique ability to use AI-related technologies in production and other business operations.
“The studio wants to be able to use the generator AI if it makes sense to them,” Spangler said. “By drawing these lines around this particular case (including Midjourney), they don’t want to tie their hands.”
We look forward to the new season of NBC’s Saturday Night Live, the bow on October 4th. Shanfeld discusses the crazy dash that occurs between top comedy agents and managers every year at the end of the summer. When “SNL” boss Lorne Michaels makes the final decision on his newly returned cast member, there is a ripple effect across the realm of comedy.
“SNL” is a highly sought after and coveted slot. But today, the up-and-coming comedy star has many options to build a career. So, “SNL” may not always be the right choice for someone lucky enough to get that call from Michaels. Newly appointed “SNL” cast member Veronika Srowikowska is a prime example of someone who has built a grassroots career on social media.
“I spoke with agents and managers who refused ‘SNL’ and decided that careers would be better off not joining ‘SNL’,” says Shanfeld. “We’re in an age where comedy films are less and comedy television shows are being produced more than they were a decade ago. And we believe that ‘SNL’ is one of the comedy facilities people tune every week. Not only other studios, they have to compete with Tiktok and Instagram, and all the funny guys in their bedrooms. ”
(Photo: “Saturday Night Live” star Sara Shaman and newly appointed cast member Veronica Slorikouska)
