The Creator Was Not Asked

Loryn Brantz created the cartoon-like character «Good Advice Cupcake» for the digital media company BuzzFeed. The character — a small cupcake offering life advice — gained great popularity on social media. Now, Amazon has entered into an agreement with BuzzFeed to produce a TV series based on the character, and the series will be animated using artificial intelligence.

The problem, according to Brantz herself and what Wired reports, is that she was not consulted or informed about the agreement. She is openly furious, and the case has garnered significant attention in creative professional circles internationally.

"Work for Hire" — The Framework That Harms Creators

The legal backdrop for the case is the American "work for hire" doctrine. Simply put: when an employee or hired creative produces something as part of their work, the copyright belongs to the employer — not the creator. This means that BuzzFeed, for whom Brantz originally created the character, can legally dispose of the character without her approval.

This is not uncommon in the animation industry. According to industry background sources, animation agreements often include wording that the buyer owns all material «in perpetuity, throughout the universe, in all known and unknown media». The person who designs a character, in most cases, retains no rights.

Character designer Bob Givens, who created Bugs Bunny, never owned the rights to the character — Warner Bros. did.
Amazon Creates AI-Animated Series from Another's Character — Creator is Furious - Bilde 1

AI Changes the Dynamics — But Not the Law

What makes this case particularly contentious is the use of artificial intelligence in production. Amazon is using AI animation to create the series, which raises a new layer of questions: who actually owns content that is generated or further processed by AI based on a human creator's original work?

The U.S. Copyright Office (USCO) has stated that purely AI-generated content, without significant human creative contribution, is not protected by copyright. However, if a company uses AI to build upon an originally human-created work — as is the case here — one finds oneself in a legal gray area that neither legislation nor judicial practice has fully clarified yet.

A Signal to the Industry

The "Good Advice Cupcake" case is not an isolated incident. It represents a pattern where large platforms and media companies exploit existing IP agreements to incorporate AI production — without the original creators either consenting or being further compensated.

In the animation community, this has sparked debate about the need to renegotiate standard contracts, so that creators have a clearer voice when works they have created are used as the basis for new production with new technology.

Brantz's case could become a precedent for where "work for hire" contracts cease to be reasonable — and where the AI revolution begins to challenge the very idea of creative ownership.

According to Wired, Brantz has been clear that she is not against her work living on — but that the way it is happening, without dialogue and with AI as a tool, feels like a betrayal to her as a creator. Amazon and BuzzFeed have not yet publicly commented on the matter in a way that directly addresses her objections.