Walt Disney Co. (NYSE:DIS) and Comcast Corp.‘s (NASDAQ:CMCSA) Universal Studios on Wednesday filed a copyright lawsuit against Midjourney, an AI-powered image generation service.
What Happened: The companies submitted the lawsuit in a federal court in Los Angeles and accused Midjourney of unauthorized use and distribution of the studios' most famous characters, according to a Reuters report.
The lawsuit called Midjourney’s platform a "bottomless pit of plagiarism."
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The companies alleged that Midjourney unlawfully copied and distributed countless images featuring characters such as Darth Vader from "Star Wars," Elsa from "Frozen" and the Minions from "Despicable Me," among others.
Disney and Universal claimed they had previously asked Midjourney to stop infringing on their copyrighted works or, at least, to implement technical measures to prevent such use, but the company reportedly ignored these requests.
Instead, the studios argued, Midjourney continued to release improved versions of its service, resulting in higher-quality infringing images. The lawsuit was filed by seven corporate entities representing the Disney and Universal film units that owned or managed the copyrights for these characters.
Disney and Universal are seeking a preliminary injunction to block Midjourney from copying their works or offering its image and video generation services without protections against copyright infringement. The studios are also pursuing unspecified damages.
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Why It Matters: Midjourney was also named in a separate 2023 lawsuit, which remains ongoing.
The suit claimed several AI image generators, including Midjourney, had used the works of over 4,700 artists, including well-known names such as Norman Rockwell and Wes Anderson, to train their systems without consent or compensation.
The controversy gained traction after artist Jon Lam shared the "Midjourney Style List" on social media, sparking debate about the lack of regulation in the AI-generated art space.
The list, reportedly disclosed by Midjourney's founder in a public forum, fueled artists' frustrations over being excluded from the profits made by AI platforms that monetize their styles through subscription services.
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