The lawsuit, submitted in federal district court in Los Angeles, alleges that Midjourney has unlawfully utilized the libraries of the two Hollywood studios, creating and distributing “innumerable” copies of characters including Darth Vader from Star Wars, Elsa from Frozen, and the Minions from Despicable Me without authorization.
The studios assert that the San Francisco company ignored their request to cease infringing on their copyrighted works or, at the very least, to implement technological measures to stop the generation of these AI-crafted characters.
Furthermore, the studios contend that Midjourney has persistently introduced new iterations of its AI image service that produce higher quality infringing visuals.
Midjourney generates animated images based on user-written prompts.
The lawsuit, filed by seven corporate entities linked to the studios that own or manage copyrights for various Disney and Universal Pictures film divisions, presents instances of Midjourney animations featuring Disney characters, including Yoda with a lightsaber, Bart Simpson skateboarding, Marvel’s Iron Man flying through the skies, and Pixar’s Buzz Lightyear taking off.
The image generator has also recreated Universal characters such as How to Train Your Dragon’s Toothless, the green ogre Shrek, and Po from Kung Fu Panda.
“By appropriating the plaintiffs’ copyrighted works and disseminating images (and soon videos) that overtly incorporate and replicate Disney’s and Universal’s iconic characters — all without investing any resources in their creation — Midjourney is the perfect example of a copyright free-rider and an endless source of plagiarism,” the lawsuit claims.
“Midjourney’s infringement is intentional and calculated.”
Disney and Universal are seeking a preliminary injunction from the court to stop Midjourney from duplicating their works or providing its image or video-generation service without measures against infringement. The studios are also pursuing unspecified damages.
The lawsuit alleges that Midjourney trained its image service using the studios’ works, generating replications of their copyrighted characters. Founded in 2021 by David Holz, the company monetizes its service through paid subscriptions, reportedly generating $300 million in revenue last year, according to the studios.
This is not the first instance of Midjourney facing accusations regarding the misuse of artists’ work to develop their AI systems.
A year ago, a federal judge in California determined that 10 artists involved in a copyright infringement lawsuit against Midjourney, Stability AI, and other firms had presented plausible arguments that these AI companies had replicated and stored their work on corporate servers, potentially making them liable for using it without authorization.
This ruling allowed the unauthorized use of images lawsuit to advance. It is currently in litigation.
In a 2022 interview with Forbes, CEO Holz stated he created the company’s database by conducting “a big scrape of the Internet.”
When questioned about whether he obtained consent from the artists whose copyrighted works were included, he replied, “there isn’t really a way to get a hundred million images and know where they’re coming from.”
