🚀 OpenAI violating IP rights

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Market Overview
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Year To Date Performances:

1. OpenAI’s new Sora app, a short-form AI video platform, is already topping Apple’s App Store as users generate clips featuring popular brands and characters like SpongeBob, Rick and Morty, Pokémon, and Ronald McDonald, raising concerns about copyright infringement and potential lawsuits. Experts warn that many of these videos likely violate IP rights, and even OpenAI CEO Sam Altman joked, “I hope Nintendo doesn’t sue us.” The company says it will handle takedown requests on a character-by-character basis and allows users to control their own likeness through “cameos,” though some IP lawyers note that offering opt-outs to certain studios prior to launch is unusual under copyright law. OpenAI positions Sora as a platform for fan creativity while aiming to respect rights holders through granular controls.

2. Taylor Swift’s “The Life of a Showgirl” album release event brought in an estimated $33 million domestically over a single weekend, marking the biggest album debut event in cinema history. Partnering with AMC, Swift screened a 90-minute special that included a music video for “The Fate of Ophelia,” behind-the-scenes footage, lyric videos, and personal reflections. Internationally, the film added $13 million, bringing the global total to $46 million. This follows Swift’s 2023 collaboration with AMC, which distributed her Eras Tour concert film and grossed $261 million globally, becoming the highest-grossing concert film ever. AMC CEO Adam Aron praised Swift for adding a “cinematic element” to her album launch, calling it “nothing less than a triumph.”

3. Aston Martin shares plunged as much as 10% Monday after the British luxury carmaker issued a fresh profit warning, citing a difficult industry outlook and tariff-related uncertainties. The company now expects its 2025 wholesale volumes to decline by a “mid-high single digit percentage” from last year’s 6,030 units and no longer anticipates positive free cash flow in the second half of the year, prompting an immediate review of costs and capital expenditures. The automaker highlighted several challenges, including U.S. tariffs, China’s taxes on ultra-luxury cars, and supply chain pressures, and stated that a quota mechanism under the May U.S.-U.K. trade deal complicates forecasting. Aston Martin is engaging both governments to seek clarity and urged the U.K. to offer more support for small-volume manufacturers, which it says provide thousands of jobs. Shares are down almost 30% year-to-date.

   Headlines

   1. Japan’s stock market hit a record high yesterday after the election of Sanae Takiachi.

   2. Meta, Prologis, and Amazon have joined the Sustainable Concrete Buyers Alliance, agreeing to financially support low-carbon concrete.