Disney and Universal Pictures have jointly filed a lawsuit in the Los Angeles federal court against Midjourney, a company specializing in AI-generated images.
According to The Guardian, the studios accuse the San Francisco-based startup of mass-copying their most iconic characters without permission. The case involves characters such as Darth Vader, Elsa, the Minions, Yoda, Shrek, and Iron Man.
What Midjourney Is Accused Of
The lawsuit claims that Midjourney copied and distributed “countless” images of Disney and Universal's iconic characters without consent. The accusations include both individual pictures and entire animated clips generated by the AI based on text prompts.
The plaintiffs claim that Midjourney refused to stop using copyrighted material even after formal requests and continued to release updates that improved the quality of such images. As evidence, the lawsuit includes examples such as Yoda with a lightsaber, Bart Simpson on a skateboard, Iron Man in flight, and Universal characters like Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon, Shrek, and Po from Kung Fu Panda.
Plaintiffs’ Position
Horacio Gutierrez, Chief Legal Officer at Disney, stated that while they see potential in AI platforms, “piracy is still piracy, even if it is done by artificial intelligence.”
Kim Harris, Executive Vice President and General Counsel of NBCUniversal, said the lawsuit aims to protect creators and investments in content production.
The studios are seeking a preliminary court injunction to prevent Midjourney from using their works, as well as compensation for unspecified damages.
Background on Midjourney
Midjourney is one of the first companies to offer AI-based image generation. The startup was founded in 2021 by David Holz, who previously worked at Protocol Labs. In a 2022 interview with Forbes, Holz said the training database was built through “automated global data scraping from the internet.”
According to the lawsuit, Midjourney generated $300 million in revenue in 2024 and monetizes its service through paid subscriptions.
Legal Context
This is not the first time Midjourney has been accused of copyright infringement. Previously, a federal court in California allowed a lawsuit filed by a group of artists against Midjourney and Stability AI to proceed, finding the claims of unauthorized storage and use of images on company servers to be sufficiently grounded.
The Disney and Universal lawsuit is one of the most high-profile cases amid a broader wave of similar legal actions. Previously, The New York Times filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft for using its articles. Meta has also been accused of training its models on pirated books, and music labels have alleged the use of songs to generate AI-created music.
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