Disney and Universal have sued AI company Midjourney over copyright infringement, becoming the first US majors to do so in a developing situation that will be watched closely by Hollywood.
In a case filed on Wednesday morning at U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on behalf of all the two studios’ companies, the plaintiffs claimed Midjourney has not ceased its “calculated and willful” unauthorised infringements, despite requests to stop and adopt technological measures to prevent the practice.
The complaint said Midjourney infringed copyright through an image-generating service that was trained by copying the studios’ copyrighted works. Subscribers can create images through text prompts that are “reproduced, publicly displayed, and made available for download”.
The studios included pictures of Yoda and other characters from Star Wars, Shrek, the Despicable Me and How To Train Your Dragon franchises, The Simpsons and Marvel Studios and Pixar IP that they said were generated in this way.
An excerpt from the complaint called Midjourney “the quintessential copyright free-rider and a bottomless pit of plagiarism”.
It continued: “Piracy is piracy, and whether an infringing image or video is made with AI or another technology does not make it any less infringing. Midjourney’s conduct misappropriates Disney’s and Universal’s intellectual property and threatens to upend the bedrock incentives of U.S. copyright law that drive American leadership in movies, television, and other creative arts.”
The studios noted they “have been, and continue to be, substantially and irreparably harmed” by Midjourney’s acts, noting the broader threat to a film industry that they said had created millions of jobs and contributed more than $260bn to the US economy.
Midjourney led by CEO David Holtz was founded in 2021. According to the complaint its subscriber based had reached 21million by September 2024.
The plaintiffs are seeking maximum statutory damages and injunctive relief.
Screen has reached out to Midjourney for a comment.
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