The "wild growth" of copyright in the era of large models is being ended by legal red lines. On February 11, 2026, according to IT Home's report citing foreign media Deadline, Google's AI tools Gemini and Nano Banana have fully entered a "self-censorship" mode, officially refusing to generate any requests involving Disney characters.

From "Virtual Vending Machine" to "Red Card Zone"

This dispute began last December when Disney, known as the "strongest legal department," sent Google a 32-page cease-and-desist letter.

Disney's Accusation: Google's AI products function like a "virtual vending machine," precisely outputting detailed images of copyrighted characters such as Darth Vader and Iron Man with simple prompts.

Google's Response: Previously, Google had argued that its training data came from the public internet and had copyright control mechanisms, but under pressure, it eventually chose to compromise.

Testing the "Block": AI No Longer Grants Every Request

According to recent tests, high-quality Disney character images that could be easily generated in January this year now trigger the blocking system.

System Prompt: When users try to input related keywords, the system now prompts: "Due to concerns from third-party content providers, I am temporarily unable to generate this image."

Technical Loophole: Notably, although text prompts are blocked, if users actively upload photos of Disney characters and combine them with instructions, the AI may still output related IP content, indicating that copyright protection still has "cat-and-mouse" space.

The Business Game Behind Copyright

While Google is blocking Disney content, Disney has turned around and reached a $1 billion agreement with OpenAI, officially authorizing its IP characters for use in the video application Sora's model training. This sharp contrast reveals the survival rules of the AI era: either pay to obtain formal authorization, or be excluded from the resource library of copyright holders.

Google’s retreat undoubtedly sounds an alarm for the entire generative AI industry: as major players become more aware of copyright, the era of free lunch for AI has officially come to an end.