Disney, Universal File First Major Studio Lawsuit Against AI Company, Sue Midjourney for Copyright Infringement: ‘This Is Theft’

Disney and NBCUniversal are the first Hollywood players to take a shot across the bow of a generative AI company that they claim has stolen their copyrighted characters.

Disney and NBCU filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against Midjourney, a generative AI start-up, alleging copyright infringement. The companies alleged that Midjourney’s own website “displays hundreds, if not thousands, of images generated by its Image Service at the request of its subscribers that infringe Plaintiffs’ Copyrighted Works.”

A copy of the lawsuit is at this link. The companies filed the suit in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in L.A. Reps for Midjourney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Disney and NBCU’s lawsuit includes images alleged to be examples of instances of Midjourney’s infringement. Those include an image of Marvel’s Deadpool and Wolverine (pictured above), Iron Man, Spider-Man, the Hulk and more; Star Wars’ Darth Vader, Yoda, R2-D2, C-3PO and Chewbacca; Disney’s Princess Elsa and Olaf from “Frozen”; characters from “The Simpsons”; Pixar’s Buzz Lightyear from “Toy Story” and Lightning McQueen from “Cars”; DreamWorks’ “How to Train Your Dragon”; and Universal‘s “Shrek” and the yellow Minions from the “Despicable Me” film franchise.

Founded in 2021, Midjourney had more than $200 million in revenue in 2023 and reportedly made $300 million in revenue last year, with almost 21 million users as of September 2024, according to the media companies’ lawsuit. Midjourney first launched its AI image generator in February 2022.

“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,” Disney and NBCU said in the lawsuit. “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.”

The complaint continued, “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. This case is not a ‘close call’ under well-settled copyright law.” According to Disney and NBCU, Midjourney sells subscriptions to consumers priced at $10-$120 per month “so that they can view and download copies and derivatives of Plaintiffs’ valuable copyrighted characters.”

Disney and NBCU said that before they sued Midjourney, they asked the company “to stop its theft of their intellectual property” but that instead Midjourney “has continued to release new versions of its Image Service, which, according to Midjourney’s founder and CEO, have even higher-quality infringing images.”

This is an image of Universal’s Minions allegedly generated by Midjourney’s AI system:

San Francisco-based Midjourney says on its website, “We are a small self-funded team focused on design, human infrastructure, and AI. We have 11 full-time staff and an incredible set of advisors.” Midjourney’s founder and CEO is David Holz, who previously co-founder and CTO of well-funded VR/AR start-up Leap Motion. Holz is a former researcher at NASA and conducted neuroscience research at the Max Planck Institute. In an interview with tech site the Register published in August 2022, Holz said that Midjourney was “already profitable.”

Disney and NBCU are seeking unspecified monetary damages, as well as “preliminary and/or permanent injunctive relief enjoining and restraining Midjourney” from infringing on or distributing their copyrighted works.

Horacio Gutierrez, the Walt Disney Co.’s senior executive VP, chief legal and compliance officer, said in a statement provided to Variety: “Our world-class IP is built on decades of financial investment, creativity and innovation — investments only made possible by the incentives embodied in copyright law that give creators the exclusive right to profit from their works. We are bullish on the promise of AI technology and optimistic about how it can be used responsibly as a tool to further human creativity. But piracy is piracy, and the fact that it’s done by an AI company does not make it any less infringing.”

Kim Harris, executive vice president and general of counsel of NBCU, said in a statement: “We are bringing this action today to protect the hard work of all the artists whose work entertains and inspires us and the significant investment we make in our content. Theft is theft regardless of the technology used, and this action involves blatant infringement of our copyrights.”

Other IP owners have sued AI companies alleging copyright infringement, but the Disney-NBCU lawsuit represents the first litigation brought by big entertainment studios in this domain. Others that have filed lawsuits against AI firms have included newspaper publishers (including the New York Times and Dow Jones & Co.), record labels, authors and visual artists. Meanwhile, in a more targeted action, the producers of “Blade Runner 2049” filed a lawsuit accusing Elon Musk and Tesla of infringing its copyrights, alleging Musk blatantly copied an iconic scene from the movie with an AI-generated image intended to promote Tesla’s new self-driving taxi.

Last December, the Writers Guild of America urged top execs at major Hollywood studios (including Disney CEO Bob Iger and Donna Langley, chair of NBCUniversal Entertainment and Studios) to take legal action against AI companies that have “looted the studios’ intellectual property — a vast reserve of works created by generations of union labor — to train their artificial intelligence systems.”

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