Disney and NBCUniversal are going after Midjourney, a generative-AI tool trained on internet data that can be used to make everything from silly memes to short films made entirely of AI slop. The two Hollywood companies filed a lawsuit against the self-funded startup in Federal Court on Tuesday “to stop its theft of their intellectual property.”
The complaint accuses Midjourney of profiting off user subscriptions in return for letting them generate images based on copyrighted material ranging from Deadpool and Darth Vader to Shrek and the Minions, Variety reports. Like other generative-AI tools, Midjourney is more or less indiscriminately trained on whatever data exists on the internet, no matter who it belongs to.
Disney and NBC Universal even reference a past interview with the company’s founder, David Holz. Asked back in 2022 by Forbes whether it gets permission for any of the work it copies, he replied, “No. There isn’t really a way to get a hundred million images and know where they’re coming from.” The lawsuit alleges Midjourney made $300 million in revenue last year off of roughly 21 million users.
“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 reads. “Piracy is piracy, and whether an infringing image or video is made with AI or another technology does not make it any less infringing. Midjourney’s conduct misappropriates Disney’s and Universal’s intellectual property and threatens to upend the bedrock incentives of U.S. copyright law that drive American leadership in movies, television, and other creative arts.”
This is the highest-profile legal attack yet on a generative-AI company, following lawsuits by The New York Times and others against companies like OpenAI for copying written work. The outcome in court would have major consequences for the viability of a technology that companies like Microsoft, Google, and Meta are investing billions in. Without the ability to essentially copy the internet for free, the entire business model behind a lot of generative-AI and large language algorithms falls part.
“Midjourney’s bootlegging business model and defiance of U.S copyright law
are not only an attack on Disney, Universal, and the hard-working creative community that brings the magic of movies to life, but are also a broader threat to the American motion picture industry which has created millions of jobs and contributed more than $260 billion to the nation’s economy,” the companies claim in their lawsuit. “This case is not a ‘close call’ under well-settled copyright law.”
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