Disney and Universal Studios’ lawsuit against Midjourney infringes copyright

Disney and NBCuniversal have filed a joint lawsuit against AI company Midjourney, accusing various properties of copyright infringement. The complaint was filed in the federal district court in Los Angeles, which includes images created by Midjourney, which contains images of various protected characters in various properties of various companies, including Star Wars, Shrek, The Simpsons, The Despicable Me and others. The 110-page lawsuit alleges that AI companies “help countless” copyrighted works when training models that have already created and spread “number” copies of these characters through AI-generated images.

In the lawsuit, Midjourney was described as “the typical copyright free knight and bottomless stealing pit.” Disney and NBCuniversal were the first major Hollywood players to enter AI copyright infringement lawsuits. It was conducted in the context of a similar lawsuit.

The intersection of art and artificial intelligence continues to fight in court, despite the huge weight of litigation of the two largest names in the media property. “We are optimistic about AI technology and how we can responsibly use it as a tool for further human creativity,” a Disney emailed The New York Times. “But piracy is piracy, and the fact that AI companies have done it doesn’t make it less than infringement.”

In another email “We have taken this action today to protect all the hard work that has inspired us and our enormous investment in content,” said Kim Harris, general counsel for NBCuniversal.

We’ve contacted Midjourney for comment and we’ll update if we hear an echo.

Read the following lawsuit: