Disney and Universal file 110-page lawsuit against AI company Midjourney, calls it: Quintessential copyright free-rider and a ...

Disney and Universal have filed a 110-page joint lawsuit against artificial intelligence startup Midjourney for copyright infringement. The media giants have labelled the AI image generator company a "quintessential copyright-free-rider" and a "bottomless pit of plagiarism." The legal action, filed this week, brings the first Hollywood companies into the escalating legal battle surrounding generative AI. The movie companies challenged that Midjourney, an AI image generator with millions of registered users, "helped itself to countless" copyrighted works. These works were allegedly used to train its software, which enables users to create images (and soon videos) that "blatantly incorporate and copy Disney’s and Universal’s famous characters."The lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court in Los Angeles. This move marks a significant step for major Hollywood entities in addressing the use of their intellectual property by AI companies.

What Disney and Universal said about the lawsuit against Midjourney

In an email sent to the New York Times, Horacio Gutierrez, Disney’s general counsel, said: “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. But piracy is piracy, and the fact that it’s done by an AI company does not make it any less infringing.”

Meanwhile, in a separate email sent to the NYT, Kim Harris, general counsel of NBCUniversal, which includes the Universal movie studio, said: “We are bringing this action today to protect the hard work of all the artists whose work entertains and inspires us and the significant investment we make in our content.”AI companies like Midjourney often train their tools using vast amounts of data sourced from the internet and other places, typically without paying or crediting original creators. This approach has already sparked legal action from a wide range of industries, including authors, visual artists, music labels and others.Now, Disney and Universal have become the first major Hollywood studios to pursue legal action for copyright infringement.In Hollywood, frustration has been growing among creative professionals over studios’ lack of response. “They have not protested the theft of this copyrighted material by the A.I. companies, and it’s a capitulation on their part to still be on the sidelines,” said Meredith Stiehm, president of the Writers Guild of America West, in a February statement to The LA Times.The lawsuit filed by Disney and Universal appears to mark a turning point. Targeting Midjourney specifically for using copyrighted characters such as Darth Vader, the Minions, Shrek, the “Frozen” princesses, and Homer Simpson, the complaint seems aimed at setting a broader precedent for the entire AI industry.