In a significant legal development, entertainment giants Disney and Universal have filed a lawsuit against artificial intelligence firm Midjourney, alleging widespread copyright infringement through its AI-powered image generator.
The legal complaint, officially filed in Los Angeles on Wednesday, accuses Midjourney of utilizing copyrighted works, specifically those related to iconic characters owned by the plaintiffs, to train its large language model and subsequently distributing images of these characters without authorization. While lawsuits against AI firms for alleged copyright infringement have been filed by authors and artists previously, this marks the first instance where major film studios have taken legal action of this kind against an AI company.
Among the widely recognized works allegedly copied without permission are characters from Disney’s expansive franchises, including Star Wars, Marvel, The Lion King, and The Simpsons. Universal’s prominent Boss Baby and Shrek franchises are also cited in the complaint. The complaint details how users can subscribe to Midjourney’s image service and generate images of copyrighted works by simply inputting prompts. These generated images, which can then be downloaded and used by subscribers, form a central part of the studios’ allegations.
Disney has strongly characterized Midjourney’s actions, labeling the firm a “copyright free-rider and a bottomless pit of plagiarism.” The studio asserts that Midjourney benefits by using their copyrighted works and distributing images that “blatantly incorporate and copy” famous characters without having invested any resources in their original creation. The lawsuit further claims that Midjourney actively uses these copyrighted characters in marketing and promoting its image service.
According to the complaint, Disney attempted to resolve the situation with Midjourney prior to initiating legal proceedings. The studio claims it requested the AI firm adopt technical measures to prevent the generation of copyrighted images. However, Disney alleges that Midjourney not only ignored these requests but instead “chosen to double down on its unlawful actions by releasing and promoting even newer versions of its Image Service and teasing its soon-to-be-released commercial AI video service.”
Disney also points to Midjourney’s existing technological capabilities, noting that the company already has measures in place to prevent the distribution and public display of violent and nudity-related images. Disney contends that these existing capabilities could easily be adapted and used to prevent the copying of their copyrighted works. “Midjourney controls what copyrighted content it selects, copies, and includes in its Image Service, and it has the means to implement protection measures to prevent the ongoing copying, public display, and distribution of Plaintiffs’ works,” the complaint states.
In their lawsuit, Disney and Universal are seeking a preliminary injunction. If granted, this injunction would prohibit Midjourney from offering its image and video-generation services unless it implements measures to prevent users from creating images of copyrighted works. Midjourney has not yet publicly responded to requests for comment regarding the lawsuit.
The legal challenges facing AI firms over copyright matters have been growing. In March, twelve US copyright cases filed against OpenAI and Microsoft were consolidated in New York. Separately, in August of the previous year, three authors filed a class-action lawsuit against Anthropic. This suit alleged that Anthropic utilized datasets containing pirated versions of their works to train its Claude family of large language models.
