Disney and Universal have initiated legal proceedings against Midjourney, marking a significant confrontation between the film industry and generative AI technologies. The lawsuit, filed in a U.S. District Court in central California, accuses the AI image generator of producing unauthorized images of well-known characters like Shrek, Darth Vader, and Buzz Lightyear.
In their complaint, the companies describe Midjourney’s AI as a “virtual vending machine” that churns out countless unauthorized replicas of their copyrighted content.
The complaint states, “By utilizing Plaintiffs’ iconic works and distributing images (and presumably videos in the future) that clearly incorporate and mimic Disney’s and Universal’s famous characters—without any financial investment in their creation—Midjourney exemplifies copyright infringement and a continuous source of plagiarism.”
According to the lawsuit, when a user prompts Midjourney to create an image of Darth Vader, the tool promptly complies. Similar results are alleged for characters like the Minions. The complaint provides numerous examples, including images of Yoda, WALL-E, Deadpool, Iron Man, Lightning McQueen, Aladdin, Spider-Man, Groot, Elsa from Frozen, the Guardians of the Galaxy, and various Star Wars characters such as Stormtroopers, Chewbacca, R2-D2, and C-3PO—all supposedly generated by Midjourney.
The lawsuit further claims that Midjourney leverages these copyrighted characters for the purpose of marketing its services.
Moreover, Disney and Universal assert that Midjourney has disregarded requests to halt its copyright violations, despite other AI companies adopting measures to protect copyrights, such as filtering prompts and screening for potential infringements.
As of now, Midjourney has not provided a response regarding the lawsuit.
A major concern for the plaintiffs is Midjourney’s imminent release of a video generation tool.
The plaintiffs emphasized their belief that this upcoming video tool will produce, publicly share, and distribute videos featuring characters owned by Disney and Universal. They further contend that, since Midjourney has begun developing this tool, it is likely infringing the plaintiffs’ copyrights.
Disney and Universal are seeking a jury trial for this case.
The plaintiffs assert, “This case is not a ‘close call’ under established copyright law,” emphasizing that it represents “textbook copyright infringement.”
This lawsuit is the first significant legal action stemming from Hollywood against generative AI, although it is one of many similar suits aimed at AI companies for alleged copyright transgressions. Increasingly, content creators and publishers are pursuing legal action against AI firms for purportedly using or training on their works. Notably, OpenAI has faced lawsuits from The New York Times, authors including George R.R. Martin, and various newspaper publishers. Similarly, Anthropic, a competitor to OpenAI, has been targeted by authors and other entities including Universal Music and Reddit in litigation.
