Disney and Universal have filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against AI firm Midjourney over its image-generating technology.
In a complaint lodged Wednesday in Los Angeles, the studios allege that Midjourney used copyrighted content—including depictions of well-known characters—to train its large language model (LLM) and has been distributing unauthorized images based on that material.
While several lawsuits have already been brought against AI companies by authors and artists, this marks the first major legal action from Hollywood studios in the growing battle over AI and intellectual property.
Characters from Star Wars, Marvel, and The Simpsons allegedly copied
The lawsuit claims that Midjourney has unlawfully replicated characters from Disney’s Star Wars, Marvel, The Lion King, and The Simpsons, as well as Universal’s Boss Baby and Shrek franchises.
According to the complaint, users can subscribe to Midjourney’s image-generation service and prompt it to produce visuals based on copyrighted works, which can then be downloaded and used freely.
Disney argues that Midjourney is exploiting these copyrighted creations without having invested anything in their development, describing the company as a “copyright free-rider and a bottomless pit of plagiarism.”
The lawsuit further alleges that Midjourney leverages these unauthorized character reproductions to promote and market its service.
Efforts to resolve the dispute amicably were unsuccessful
Disney claims it sought to resolve the issue with Midjourney before taking legal action by requesting the company implement technical safeguards to block the creation of copyrighted images.
“Instead, Midjourney has doubled down on its illegal activities by releasing and promoting new versions of its Image Service and teasing an upcoming commercial AI video service,” Disney stated in the lawsuit.
The complaint also points out that Midjourney already employs technology to restrict violent and nudity-related content, which Disney argues could easily be adapted to prevent copying of its copyrighted works.
“Midjourney controls which copyrighted material it selects, copies, and includes in its Image Service, and has the ability to implement protections to stop the ongoing copying, public display, and distribution of our works,” Disney added.
Disney and Universal have requested a preliminary injunction to bar Midjourney from offering its image and video-generation services without measures to prevent users from creating images of copyrighted content.
Midjourney has not yet responded to requests for comment.
AI companies confront increasing legal battles
Midjourney is not the first AI company to face legal challenges over alleged copyright violations. In March, twelve US copyright lawsuits against OpenAI and Microsoft were consolidated in New York. Additionally, last August, three authors filed a class-action lawsuit against Anthropic, accusing the firm of using datasets containing pirated copies of their works to train its Claude family of large language models.
