Disney and Universal File Copyright Suit Against Midjourney
The suit argues that Midjourney exploited Disney and Universal’s copyrighted characters to develop its profitable AI tools without permission.
Overview
- The 110-page complaint filed June 11 in Los Angeles federal court accuses Midjourney of scraping images from franchises such as Star Wars and Marvel to train its image generator.
- Disney and Universal characterized the company’s data collection methods as bootlegging and tied them to Midjourney’s reported $300 million in revenue last year.
- Walt Disney’s general counsel emphasized that AI developers must comply with intellectual property law and NBCUniversal’s legal chief underscored the studios’ duty to protect creative labor.
- Midjourney, which claims roughly 21 million users and independent funding, has not publicly addressed the lawsuit’s allegations.
- The legal action follows similar cases against OpenAI and Stability AI and could influence future regulations on AI training data and copyright enforcement.