In a significant escalation of the legal tensions between creative industries and AI firms, Disney and Universal have filed a joint lawsuit against generative AI company Midjourney, accusing it of widespread copyright infringement.
The complaint, filed jointly in federal district court in Los Angeles by the two separate companies, alleges that Midjourney used copyrighted material from both studios to train its AI image generator, which can produce images that replicate well-known characters from their film and television libraries. According to the suit, the tool generated unauthorized reproductions of characters such as Darth Vader, Elsa from Frozen, the Minions, Shrek, and Homer Simpson.
“Midjourney is the quintessential copyright free-rider and a bottomless pit of plagiarism,” the studios write in the 110-page complaint, per The New York Times. They claim the San Francisco-based company “helped itself to countless” copyrighted works without permission or compensation.
The lawsuit marks the first time major Hollywood studios have taken direct legal action against a generative AI company. It comes amid broader industry concern over AI’s use of protected intellectual property.
The complaint details multiple instances of alleged infringement, including AI-generated images of characters from Star Wars, Frozen, The Simpsons, and Despicable Me. It also highlights recreations of Buzz Lightyear, Iron Man, Bart Simpson, Yoda, and others. The studios contend that these images are the result of a deliberate strategy by Midjourney to profit from their work.
“We are bringing this action today to protect the hard work of all the artists whose work entertains and inspires us and the significant investment we make in our content,” says Kim Harris, executive vice president and general counsel at NBCUniversal. “Theft is theft regardless of the technology used, and this action involves blatant infringement of our copyrights.”
Disney echoed this position. “Our world-class IP is built on decades of financial investment, creativity, and innovation — investments only made possible by the incentives embodied in copyright law,” says Horacio Gutierrez, senior executive vice president and chief legal and compliance officer of The Walt Disney Company. “We are bullish on the promise of AI technology and optimistic about how it can be used responsibly as a tool to further human creativity. But piracy is piracy, and the fact that it’s done by an AI company does not make it any less infringing.”
The studios also claim that they attempted to engage Midjourney in discussions before filing the suit, but the company allegedly declined to implement any meaningful changes to prevent infringement. Instead, the complaint alleges, Midjourney released updated versions of its image service that produced even more accurate and high-quality images of protected content.
Midjourney, founded in 2021 by David Holz, has gained popularity for its ability to generate images based on text prompts. Holz has previously acknowledged using massive amounts of online data to train the system. In a 2022 interview with Forbes, he admitted the company performed “a big scrape of the internet” and said there “isn’t really a way to get a hundred million images and know where they’re coming from.”
The company, which reportedly earned $300 million in revenue last year from paid subscriptions, has not yet responded to the lawsuit.
In addition to damages, Disney and Universal are seeking a preliminary injunction to stop Midjourney from continuing to generate or distribute infringing images or videos.
The lawsuit comes just as the trial between Getty Images and Stability AI kicked off in London this week. Both trials will be closely watched amid uncertainty as to how copyright can be applied in the age of AI.
Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.
