Disney and Universal sued the artificial intelligence company on Wednesday, claiming copyright infringement. In their lawsuit, the entertainment giant was called the image generator that drives Midi Johnny's popular AI and was called the “bottomless hole of plagiarism” suspected of replicating the studio's most famous characters.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Los Angeles, alleges that Midi Joan pirated two Hollywood studio libraries and created and distributed “countless” copies of marquee characters, including Darth Vader from Star Wars, Eliza from Frozen, and Minions from the Despicable Me without permission. Midjourney did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Disney and universal image and video litigation represent a new frontier in the fierce legal war on the creation of copyright and the artificial intelligence. Previous suits cover copyrighted text and music. Disney and Universal are, so far, two of the biggest industry players to sue images and videos.
“We are pleased to announce that we are pleased to announce that we are pleased to announce that we are pleased to announce that we are pleased to announce that we are pleased to announce that we are pleased to announce that we are pleased to announce that we are pleased to announce that we are pleased to announce that we are pleased to announce that we are pleased to announce that we are pleased to announce that we are pleased to announce that we are pleased to announce that we are pleased to announce that we are pleased to announce that we are pleased to announce that we are pleased to announce that we are pleased to announce that we are pleased to announce that we are pleased to announce that we are pleased to announce that we are pleased to announce that we are pleased to announce that we are pleased to announce that we are pleased to announce that we are pleased to announce that we are pleased to announce that we are pleased to announce that we are pleased to announce that we are pleased to announce that we are pleased to announce that we are pleased to announce that we are pleased to announce that we are pleased to announce that we are “We are bullish about the promises of AI technology and are optimistic about how we can use it responsibly as a tool to further enhance human creativity, but the fact that piracy is a copyright infringement and is being carried out by AI companies is not so infringing.”
Kim Harris, vice-chairman and legal counsel at NBCuniversal, said the company is calling for “to entertain, inspire us, and protect the hard work of all artists who make a significant investment in content.”
The studio claims that the San Francisco company, one of the earliest San Francisco companies that provide image-generating AI products, will either stop infringing copyrighted works or at least take technical measures to stop the creation of AI-generated images of characters copied.
Instead, Studios says Midjourney continues to release new versions of its AI image service, boasting high quality infringing images. Midjourney can recreate animated images from the requested or prompt you enter. AI companies are training programs to generate new images and text using the vast amount of data that is often retrieved from millions of websites.
In a 2022 interview with Forbes, Midjourney CEO Holz said he built the company's database by performing “big internet rubs.”
In a lawsuit filed by seven corporate entities with studios owning or controlling copyrights to various Disney and Universal Pictures Film Units, the studio provided examples of mid-journey animations involving Disney characters such as Yoda, equipped with lightsabers. The image generator also recreated universal characters such as the Dragon Dragon of Kung Fu Panda, Toothless, Green Egg Shrek, and PO.
“By supporting herself in plaintiffs' copyrighted works and then distributing images (and soon videos) that blatantly incorporate and copy famous characters from Disney and Universal, Midi Joan is a typical copyright-free rider and a bottomless pit of flexible flexibility.”
Disney and Universal have sought a preliminary injunction with the court to prevent the Mid Journey from copying the work or providing image and video generation services without protection against infringement. The studio also seeks unspecified damages.
Founded in 2021 by David Holz, Midjourney monetized its services through paid subscriptions, generating $300 million in revenue last year alone, the studio said.
After the newsletter promotion
This is not the first time Midjourney has been accused of misusing an artist's job to train AI systems. A year ago, a federal judge in California discovered that the 10 artists, stability AI and other companies behind the copyright infringement lawsuit against the Mid Journey allegedly these AI companies had copied and saved their work on the company's servers, and could be liable for using it without permission. The ruling allowed the lawsuit to continue for misuse of images. It is in the process of litigation.
The case is part of a wave of lawsuits involving authors, news outlets, and a wave of labels containing labels against high-tech companies about allowing copyrighted materials to be used for AI training.
When asked if the work was looking for the consent of artists whose copyright covers it, Holtz replied, “There's really no way to get 100 million images and know where they came from.” In a submission to the UK government earlier last year, Openai said, “it is impossible to train today's leading AI models without using copyrighted materials.”
In late 2023, New York Times sued Openai, the maker of ChatGpt, and Microsoft, which owns a 49% stake in the startup, to form an article containing a huge amount of text, claiming its misuse and regeneration. The suit is ongoing. Other news outlets, including Guardian, have reached an agreement to license the archives to artificial intelligence companies. The book authors likewise sued Meta over allegations of using a huge database of pirated books to train the Lama AI model, although many of the writers' claims have been dismissed.
In June 2024, major record labels sued two AI companies for copyright infringement. Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group Recordings and Warner Records accused Suno and Udio of misusing millions of songs to create an engine that could “spew” definitely derived music.
