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22h ago

Disney and Universal Sue Midjourney for AI Copyright Infringement

Studios are seeking a court order to halt the generation of unlicensed character images following what they describe as Midjourney’s willful use of their copyrighted works.

Image
Section of Midjourney's 'Explore' page
"Frozen," "Despicable Me" and "The Simpsons" (Christopher Smith for TheWrap)

Overview

  • Disney and Universal filed suit on June 11 in Los Angeles federal court, accusing Midjourney of producing unauthorized images of characters such as Darth Vader, Elsa and the Minions.
  • The complaint alleges Midjourney ignored repeated studio requests to remove copyrighted content and to implement technical filters before releasing updated versions of its AI service.
  • Midjourney CEO David Holz told Forbes in 2022 that the company scraped vast quantities of internet images for training without checking their origins or securing permissions.
  • Disney and Universal are pursuing statutory damages, a full accounting of Midjourney’s related earnings and a preliminary injunction to block further unlicensed image and video generation.
  • Legal experts say the lawsuit could establish a pivotal precedent for copyright enforcement and responsible training practices across the generative AI industry.