Two entertainment giants, Walt Disney Co. and NBC Universal, filed a joint copyright infringement lawsuit on Wednesday against Midjourney, a widely used AI image generator.
The suit marks the first time major Hollywood studios have waded into the escalating conflict between legacy media and generative AI firms, whose use of open-source imagery on the internet to train their AI models has been heavily scrutinized.
Filed in federal court in Los Angeles, the 110-page complaint accuses the San Francisco-based company Midjourney Inc. of misappropriating copyrighted visuals from popular fictionalized characters from major franchises like the “Star Wars” movies and Marvel comic books in order to develop its AI tools.
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The complaint accuses Midjourney of illegally culling images copyrighted under Disney and Universal-owned brands and describes the company’s methods as “bootlegging.” The studios further claimed that such a practice helped Midjourney to become profitable in short period of time.
Midjourney reported $300 million in revenue last year, six times more than what it gained in 2022, the year the company was founded by its CEO David Holz. Midjourney claims it has amassed around 21 million users in three years.
In a statement to the New York Times, Disney’s general counsel said that AI companies aren’t exempt from legal standards protecting intellectual property. NBC Universal’s legal chief added that the studios are obligated to protect creative labor they invested in.
Midjourney claims that it is independently funded and that it receives no backing from outside investors. The company has said it generates its revenue from subscription plans at monthly fees that go up to $120.
The lawsuit is in line with a larger industry crackdown. Other image generation platforms like Open AI and StabilityAI have been targeted in lawsuits by major media brands, including the the New York Times and Getty Images.
The two studios are seeking undisclosed amounts in damages and court-ordered restrictions on Midjourney’s generation tools. Midjourney has not publicly responded to the suit’s claims.