Looks like there is case law that fictional characters are protected if they are "sufficiently delineated." I don't see how that applies to code, though.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_protection_for_fic...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_protection_for_fic...
Suppose we create a new AI image generator, and use as training input every image ever made of a Disney character (official images by Disney, that is, no fan art), including every frame of every Disney movie. Could we just use the output images of that AI however we wanted to? (Not withstanding trademarks.)