Disney and Universal sue AI firm Midjourney for copyright infringement

Australia Broadcast Center

a day ago

Two Hollywood heavyweights have filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against an AI firm, describing the image generator as a "bottomless pit of plagiarism".
Disney and Universal have accused San Francisco-based AI company Midjourney of pirating their libraries and making "innumerable" copies of famous characters without permission.
Darth Vader from Star Wars, Elsa from Frozen and the Minions from Despicable Me are just some of the characters used as examples throughout the 143-page lawsuit.
The lawsuit is the first major legal battle between Hollywood studios and an AI company and follows other suits by independent artists who have sued Midjourney — and other AI companies — for using their creative work.
The suit, filed in federal district court in Los Angeles, alleges Midjourney used the studios' works to train its image service and generate high-quality reproductions featuring the companies' famous characters.
The lawsuit states:
"By helping itself to Plaintiffs' copyrighted works, and then distributing images (and soon videos) that blatantly incorporate and copy Disney's and Universal's famous characters — without investing a penny in their creation — Midjourney is the quintessential copyright free-rider and a bottomless pit of plagiarism."
In a statement to ABC News, The Walt Disney Company says its intellectual property is "built on decades of financial investment, creativity and innovation".
"Investments only made possible by the incentives embodied in copyright law that give creators the exclusive right to profit from their works," said Horacio Gutierrez, Disney's senior executive VP, chief legal and compliance officer.
"We are bullish on the promise of AI technology and optimistic about how it can be used responsibly as a tool to further human creativity.
The studios said they approached Midjourney about their copyright concerns before filing the suit, requesting the company implement measures to prevent infringement that other AI companies have adopted.
But Midjourney "ignored" their concerns and was "strictly focused on its own bottom line," according to the filing.
Instead of stopping its infringement, the studios argued, Midjourney continued to release new and better versions of its AI image service.
Midjourney describes itself as a "small self-funded team" with 11 full-time staff in addition to advisors.
The complaint noted the company generated $US300 million ($461 million) in revenue last year through paid subscriptions.
The ABC has contacted Midjourney for comment.
According to the Associated Press (AP), Midjourney chief executive David Holz addressed the lawsuit in a weekly conference call with users on Wednesday when asked if it would endanger the startup's future.
"I can't really discuss any ongoing legal things because the world isn't cool like that, but I think Midjourney is going to be around for a very long time," Mr Holz said.
"I think everybody wants us to be around."
In a 2022 interview with AP, Mr Holz described his image-making service as "kind of like a search engine" pulling in a wide swath of images from across the internet.
He compared copyright concerns about the technology with how such laws have adapted to human creativity.
"Obviously, it's allowed for people and if it wasn't, then it would destroy the whole professional art industry, probably the non-professional industry too.
"To the extent that AIs are learning like people, it's sort of the same thing and if the images come out differently, then it seems like it's fine."
Disney and Universal are seeking unspecified monetary damages and a preliminary injunction to prevent Midjourney from copying their works or offering its services without copyright protections.
Last year, a California federal judge found that artists behind a copyright infringement suit against Midjourney, Stability AI and other companies had plausibly argued these AI companies had copied and stored their work on company servers, allowing the litigation to continue.