Disney and Universal sue Midjourney for making AI ripoffs of their biggest characters

Disney and Universal sued Midjourney on Wednesday for generating Shrek, Darth Vader, Buzz Lightyear, and a host of other copyrighted characters in the first major legal showdown between Hollywood and generative AI.

The complaint, filed in a US District Court in central California, calls Midjourney’s AI image generator a “virtual vending machine, generating endless unauthorized copies of Disney’s and Universal’s copyrighted work.”

“By helping itself to Plaintiffs’ copyrighted works, and then distributing images (and soon videos) that blatantly incorporate and copy Disney’s and Universal’s famous characters—without investing a penny in their creation—Midjourney is the quintessential copyright free-rider and a bottomless pit of plagiarism,” the lawsuit states.

For example, if a Midjourney subscriber prompts the AI tool to generate an image of Darth Vader, it immediately obliges, according to the plaintiffs, and the same occurs for images of Minions. Disney and Universal included dozens of example images, such as Yoda, WALL-E, Deadpool, Iron Man, Lightning McQueen, Aladdin, Spider-Man, Groot, Elsa from Frozen, the Guardians of the Galaxy, and Star Wars characters including Stormtroopers, Chewbacca, R2-D2, and C-3PO — all allegedly generated by Midjourney.

Disney and Universal claim in the lawsuit that Midjourney uses such copyrighted characters to market and promote its tools.

They also allege that Midjourney has so far ignored the companies’ demands to stop infringing on copyrighted material, even as other AI image- and video-generation services have adopted copyright protections like rejecting certain prompts and screening for copyright infringement.

Midjourney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

One particular sticking point for the plaintiffs: Midjourney’s soon-to-be-released video generator.

The plaintiffs wrote that they believe Midjourney’s video AI tool “will generate, publicly display, and distribute videos featuring Disney’s and Universal’s copyrighted characters,“ adding that since Midjourney has already begun training the tool, the company is “very likely already infringing Plaintiffs’ copyrighted works in connection with its Video Service.”

Disney and Universal are calling for a jury trial.

“This case is not a ‘close call’ under well-settled copyright law,” the plaintiffs write, adding, “That is textbook copyright infringement.”

Although it’s the first major legal action coming from Hollywood in such a case, it’s far from the first accusing an AI company of copyright infringement.It’s becoming more and more common for publishers and content creators to sue AI companies over allegedly training on or copying their creative works. OpenAI, creator of ChatGPT, has been on the receiving end in a high-profile way after a lawsuit from The New York Times, as well as a class-action lawsuit from a group of authors including George R.R. Martin, and a lawsuit from the publishers of newspapers including The New York Daily News and The Chicago Tribune. Anthropic, the OpenAI rival behind the Claude chatbot, has been sued by a group of authors, as well as Universal Music and, last week, Reddit.