Disney and Universal sue Midjourney, says AI firm is a 'bottomless pit of plagiarism'

Two of the biggest studios in Hollywood, Disney and Universal, are suing Midjourney and its AI platform for image generation for copyright infringement.

Disney and Universal sue Midjourney, says AI firm is a 'bottomless pit of plagiarism'
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TL;DR: Disney and Universal have sued Midjourney for copyright infringement, accusing the AI image generator of using their copyrighted characters without permission to train its model. The lawsuit demands a halt to unauthorized use and damages, highlighting growing legal challenges for AI companies exploiting protected creative content.

It's no secret that the advanced and powerful AI models used for image generation have been trained using copyrighted material. Case in point: the images in this article were created using Midjourney's AI image generator and simple prompts like "Mickey Mouse and Darth Vader in a courtroom."

Midjourney AI image generation has no problem generating high-quality images of Disney characters.
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Midjourney AI image generation has no problem generating high-quality images of Disney characters.

And with news breaking that Disney and Universal are now suing Midjourney for copyright infringement, it's not all that surprising when you use the powerful AI tool to create an image of any Disney or Universal character with impressive accuracy in seconds.

The suit, filed in Los Angeles this week, claims that Midjourney has scraped the massive content libraries of Disney and Universal to train its AI image generation model. The suit doesn't hold back, either, calling Midjourney a "copyright free-rider" and a "bottomless pit of plagiarism."

Here's an excerpt from the filing.

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. 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 lawsuit also notes that both studios have previously requested that Midjourney stop infringing on their copyrighted material. It claims that Midjourney made $300 million in revenue last year. The suit calls for a preliminary injunction to stop Midjourney from using its copyrighted works and damages in an unspecified amount.

With AI companies like Midjourney evolving their AI tools to include video generation, Disney and Universal believe that the company is "very likely already infringing copyrighted works in connection with its Video Service" and that Midjourney will "publicly display and distribute videos featuring Disney's and Universal's copyrighted characters."

Midjourney is defending from a similar copyright infringement suit aimed at multiple AI companies, with a class action trial set for September 2026. OpenAI and ChatGPT are also in the legal firing line, fending off a lawsuit from The New York Times and a class action suit from several prominent authors, including Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin.