AI News Monitor

Disney and Universal Studios filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against Midjourney, a leading artificial intelligence image-generator, in a landmark legal challenge that pits Hollywood giants against a fast-growing AI company accused of pirating copyrighted characters to produce AI-generated replicas.

The complaint, filed in federal court in Los Angeles, alleges that Midjourney unlawfully trained its systems on vast libraries of copyrighted material—including iconic figures like Star Wars’ Darth Vader and Despicable Me’s Minions—to create and distribute “endless unauthorized copies” without permission.

“Midjourney is the quintessential copyright free-rider and a bottomless pit of plagiarism,” the studios wrote in the filing. “Piracy is piracy, and whether an infringing image or video is made with AI or another technology does not make it any less infringing.”

The lawsuit marks the first major legal offensive by Hollywood studios against a generative AI company, reflecting broader industry anxieties over how the technology could disrupt entertainment. Disney and Universal claim Midjourney ignored their demands to stop using their intellectual property and implement safeguards to block such outputs.

Midjourney, a San Francisco-based startup, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. However, CEO David Holz briefly addressed the lawsuit during a weekly user conference call, assuring that the company would endure.

“I can’t really discuss any ongoing legal things because the world isn’t cool like that,” Holz said, “but I think Midjourney is going to be around for a very long time. I think everybody wants us to be around.”

In a 2022 interview with The Associated Press, Holz compared Midjourney’s technology to a “search engine” that aggregates online images, suggesting AI learning mirrors human creativity. “If a person can look at somebody else’s picture and learn from it, isn’t it the same for AI?” he argued.

The lawsuit arrives as AI firms aggressively court Hollywood, offering tools to generate video, synthetic voices, and editing assistance. But entertainment giants remain wary. The Motion Picture Association, a trade group, backed the studios’ stance, calling copyright protection “the backbone of our industry” while advocating for “responsible, human-centered innovation.”

The Recording Industry Association of America also endorsed the lawsuit, framing it as a defense of artistic rights amid similar battles over AI-generated music.

Legal experts say the case could test the boundaries of AI and copyright law. While AI companies often invoke “fair use” to justify training models on public data, content creators argue such practices amount to theft.

The dispute mirrors other high-profile cases, including Getty Images’ ongoing London trial against Stability AI, another image-generator developer. Meanwhile, U.S. courts are grappling with a surge of lawsuits against AI firms in tech hubs like San Francisco and New York.

For now, Hollywood’s message is clear: AI may be transformative, but not at the expense of intellectual property.