'A bottomless pit of plagiarism': Disney and Universal sue AI image generator Midjourney for copyright infringement

AI image generator Midjourney could be facing some serious legal headaches, as The Verge reports that the company is being sued by Hollywood powerhouses Disney and Universal, who say the company's unauthorized use of its characters make it a "bottomless pit of plagiarism."

Midjourney is a generative AI service that yacks up images based on text prompts, enabling subscribers to churn out pretty much whatever they want—including things like, for instance, 'Snow White stabbing Shrek with a lightsaber,' which I just now made up.

And that's become a problem for Midjourney, because much of what its service spits out is based on characters created and owned by someone else: It "functions as a virtual vending machine," the lawsuit states, "generating endless unauthorized copies of Disney's and Universal's copyrighted works."

"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."

Disney and Universal had previously asked Midjourney to halt its infringement, according to the suit, but it chose to "double down" instead by releasing newer and more advanced versions of its service. The suit also claims Midjourney has already begun training its video service on copyrighted materials, and says Midjourney's video service "is very likely already infringing" copyrighted works.

This isn't the first time Midjourney has been sued for infringing on copyrighted works. In 2023, a group of artists filed a class action lawsuit against it, as well as StabilityAI and DeviantArt, over claims that they were using copyrighted work to train their systems.

But the magnitude of the problem is much greater in this case because, well, it's Disney and Universal: massive corporations with bottomless wealth and legal departments that could put the fear of God into many nation-states. That's not a problem that's going away easily.

The lawsuit includes multiple Midjourney-generated images of characters belonging to Disney and Universal, including Darth Vader, Minions, Shrek, and Yoda, and it's not hard to find them for yourself on Midjourney's own website: You have to sign up if you want to play, but the "Explore" page, which highlights images based on prompts entered by Midjourney users, seems happy to show off stuff like this:

"Midjourney's bootlegging business model and defiance of US 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 lawsuit states.

"This case is not a 'close call' under well-settled copyright law. Midjourney set up a lucrative commercial service by making countless, unauthorized copies of Plaintiffs' copyrighted works, and now sells subscriptions to consumers so that they can view and download copies and derivatives of Plaintiffs’ valuable copyrighted characters. That is textbook copyright infringement."

It's a bit rich for Disney to be wringing its hands over the fate of the "hard-working creative community" given its own fumbling with generative AI, but the unprecedented firepower it and Universal bring to this action has the potential to at least set some guidelines for what generative AI companies like Midjourney can get away with. I've reached out to Midjourney for comment and will update if I receive a reply.