Warner Bros Discovery is suing prominent artificial intelligence image generators for copyright infringement, escalating high-stakes fights that include the use of films and television shows owned by major studios to teach AI systems.
In the lawsuit, Midi Joanie, with millions of registered users, is building her business around mass theft of content. The company is filing a complaint filed Thursday in California federal court by having subscribers create images and videos of iconic copyrighted characters by “brutally distributing Warner Bros Discovery's intellectual property.”
“The heart of what we do is develop stories and characters to entertain our audiences and realize the vision and passion of our creative partners,” a spokesman for Warner Bros Discovery said in a statement. “Midjourney blatantly infringes on prominent copyrighted works and has filed this lawsuit to protect its content, partners and investment.”
For years, AI companies have trained technology on data scrapped over the Internet without compensating creators. It has led to lawsuits from authors, record labels, news organizations, artists and studios, claiming that some AI tools are eroding demand for content.
Warner Bros Discovery joined Disney and Universal and teamed up with Sue Midi Johnny earlier this year. With their thinking, AI Company is a freerider who steals movies and TV shows.
Examples cited in the Warner Bros Discovery lawsuit: The left is the mid-journey output of Bug Bunny, and the right is the actual Warner Bros. Bug Bunny images.
In a statement, Disney said it was “committed to protecting our creators and innovators,” and said it was “pleasant that Warner Bros Discovery will take part in the fight against MidiJohnny's blatant copyright infringement.”
NBCuniversal states, “Creative artists are the backbone of our industry and we are committed to protecting their work and intellectual property.”
In the lawsuit, Warner Bros Discovery points to a generated image of a mid-journey of iconic copyrighted characters. At the forefront are heroes who are at the heart of DC Studios' films and television shows, including Superman, Wonder Woman, and Joker. Others are the Rooney songs, Tom and Jerry and Scooby-Doo characters, and have become ubiquitous common names. Other manga network characters are other manga network characters Rick and Morty, In recent years, he has appeared as a cultural touchstone.
Another example cited in the Warner Bros Discovery lawsuit: on the left is the production of Rick and Morty's mid-journey, and on the right is the actual Warner Bros. Stills from the show.
Midjourney features four-tier paid subscriptions ranging from $10 to $120 per month, and did not respond immediately to requests for comment, but will return characters owned by Warner Bros. Discovery in response to prompts such as “Classic Comic Superhero Battle” that do not explicitly mention certain intellectual property.
As evidence that Midjourney trained AI systems with intellectual property, the studio has attached dozens of images showing the output of the tool compared to stills in movies and TV shows. When prompted with “Batman, Screencap from the Dark Knight,” the service returns an image of the character portrayal featuring the costume Kevlar plate design, unlike previous iterations of heroes that appear to have been filmed from films and promotional materials, with few alternatives. One more persuasive example highlights the bug bunny in 3D animation that reflects his adaptation Space Jam: New Heritage.
The lawsuit argues that Midi Joanie's ability to return copyrighted characters is a “clear draw for subscribers,” leaving consumers away from purchasing Warner Bros.-approved posters, wall art, and prints that have to compete with the service today.
Like Openai, the content used to train Midjourney's technology is a black box, representing the obstacles of some creators who sued AI companies for copyright infringement. RightSholders mined an official statement from AI company C-Suites for clues. In 2022, Mid Journey founder David Holtz said in an interview that his employees “grab what they can, throw it in a huge file, burn it and train it on big things.” Details of the training process are subject to discovery.
Warner Bros Discovery seeks Midi Joanie's benefits arising from alleged infringement, or $150,000 for each work that was infringed, and the AI company could remain on the hook for significant damages.
The driving force behind the studio's lawsuit will likely be determined by one question. AI companies are covered by fair use. Is this a legal doctrine of intellectual property law that allows creators to build on copyrighted works without a license? On that issue, the court discovered earlier this year that Amazon-backed humanity is on a solid legal basis, at least when it comes to training.
The technology is “one of the most transformative things that many of us will see in our lifetimes,” wrote District Judge William Alsup.
Still, the court set up a trial over allegations that the company had downloaded millions of books and created a library that was used for training. Humanity, who later settled the lawsuit, faced the potential damages of hundreds of millions of dollars due to the decisions that laid the foundations of Warner Bros Discovery, Disney and Universal, and was able to get similar payments to get similar payments in response to Midi Joan obtaining thousands of copies.
Bystanders in the battle for generation AI: Paramount Skydance, Amazon MGM Studios, Apple Studios, Sony Pictures, Lionsgate. Some have major AI ambitions.
