Disney and Universal, along with their subsidiaries like Marvel, Lucasfilm, and DreamWorks Animation, have initiated a copyright infringement lawsuit against the AI image generator Midjourney, marking the first time major Hollywood studios have taken such legal action against a generative AI company. The lawsuit, filed in a Los Angeles federal court, accuses Midjourney of pirating the studios' libraries to generate and distribute unauthorized copies of their famous characters, including Darth Vader from "Star Wars" and the Minions from "Despicable Me."
The plaintiffs assert that Midjourney is a "quintessential copyright free-rider and a bottomless pit of plagiarism." They argue that the AI company's actions undermine the incentives of U.S. copyright law, which drives American leadership in movies, television, and other creative arts. The studios claim that Midjourney ignored their requests to cease infringing on their copyrighted works and implement technological measures to prevent such image generation.
The lawsuit includes over 30 examples of Midjourney-generated images alongside original images from Disney and Universal movies. These examples demonstrate that the AI-generated images closely resemble the original works in terms of coloring, animation style, and specific details like logos on characters such as Lighting McQueen and Buzz Lightyear.
Midjourney's CEO, David Holz, addressed the lawsuit in a conference call with users, stating that he couldn't discuss ongoing legal matters but believes Midjourney will be around for a very long time. In a 2022 interview, Holz described Midjourney as "kind of like a search engine" that pulls in images from across the internet.
The lawsuit comes amid growing concerns in Hollywood and the broader creative industries about the unauthorized use of generative AI. The entertainment industry has seen an increase in AI tools that can aid filmmakers and game developers in generating new video, synthetic voices, and editing assistance. Copyright and intellectual property issues were central to the strikes by actors and writers in 2023.
Intellectual property lawyer Robert Rosenberg commented on the lawsuit, saying it draws a line in the sand with AI developers like Midjourney. He argues that the AI platforms can only output images of characters like Yoda or Darth Vader because they have trained their models by ingesting copyrighted images of these characters.
Midjourney is one of several AI image generators facing copyright lawsuits. A class-action lawsuit filed by artists against Stability AI, Midjourney, and DeviantArt is also proceeding in court. This lawsuit alleges that these companies used artists' works as "training images" to produce AI-generated images in the style of the original images without permission or compensation. Getty Images has also sued Stability AI for allegedly copying over 12 million photos from its collection without permission.
