Disney and Universal Sue Ai Company Midjourney vs. “Bottomless Stealing”
Disney and Universal Pictures have filed a landmark lawsuit against AI Image Generator Midjourney, accusing the San Francisco-based company of infringing on massive copyrights and calling its tools “bottomless theft.”
Entertainment giants claim that Midjourney’s AI model creates high-quality visuals from text prompts, illegally copying and distributing images of iconic characters, including Darth Vader, Yoda, Elsa, Elsa, Shrek, Iron Man and Minions. The lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles federal court and marks one of Hollywood’s most radical legal lawsuits against the fast-growing production AI industry.
“Piracy is piracy, and the fact that AI companies have done does not make it less than infringement,” said Horacio Gutierrez, chief legal officer of Disney. Kim Harris, general counsel for NBCuniversal, responded to the concern, adding that the lawsuit aims to protect the creative work and investments of the studios and artists they represent.
According to the complaint, Midjourney’s training data includes millions of images scraped off the internet without permission – a practice confirmed by founder David Holz in a 2022 interview. Studios claims Midjourney has rejected a request to stop using its intellectual property rights or to implement safeguards that will prevent users from producing infringing content.
Studios have filed a preliminary ban to prevent Midjourney from providing its image and video generation services unless it adopts tools to prevent unauthorized copying of copyrighted content. They also seek unspecified financial losses.
Midjourney has yet to comment on the lawsuit, which it earned $300 million in revenue last year through a paid subscription. However, the company has faced similar legal challenges before. Previous lawsuits filed by a group of visual artists are still ongoing, and last year the judge ruled that the artist’s claim – Midjourney, who stored and reassured his copyrighted work without consent, was “reasonable”.
This latest action highlights the growing tension between the creative industry and AI developers as generative models increasingly violate areas previously protected by intellectual property laws. In particular, the entertainment industry has grown rapidly in recent months to oppose its widespread occupation of its copyrighted content. In parallel litigation, major record labels, authors and news organizations have taken similar actions against AI companies that train protected materials without consent or compensation.
The legal outcomes of the Disney and Universal cases may constitute a training model for fair use or infringement of AI tools, setting a key precedent for how AI tools are developed and monetized.
While some media companies, including The Guardian and Axel Springer, have chosen to license their files to AI companies, others (such as The New York Times) have filed lawsuits against OpenAI and Microsoft for similar unauthorized use.
Currently, the case marks a critical test of whether the court will conduct a solid line of copyright protection in the age of AI, or whether companies like Midjourney can continue to scratch and generate companies with limited liability from a vast library of artificial work.
