Disney and Universal are suing over people using artificial intelligence to recreate their characters. In recent years, the rapid emergence of AI has become intrinsically linked with Hollywood, sparking heated debates over its impact on human creativity, intellectual property, and the future of the entertainment industry. Disney and Universal are two of Hollywood’s biggest studios, with the former owning franchises like Marvel, Star Wars, and Pixar, and in turn, characters like Darth Vader, Yoda, and Wall-E. Universal owns Minions, Shrek, and How to Train Your Dragon.
Per The Hollywood Reporter, Disney and Universal have filed a lawsuit against Midjourney over AI tools that allow users to generate images and videos of their iconic characters with simple prompts, calling the company a “bottomless pit of plagiarism.” The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on June 11 by Disney Enterprises, Marvel, Lucasfilm, 20th Century, Universal City Studios Productions, and DreamWorks Animation. Read several excerpts from the lawsuit below, accompanied by a statement from Disney general counsel Horacio Gutierrez:
“If a Midjourney subscriber submits a simple text prompt requesting an image of the character Darth Vader in a particular setting or doing a particular action, Midjourney obliges by generating and displaying a high quality, downloadable image featuring Disney’s copyrighted Darth Vader character.”
“Midjourney downloaded from the internet, and other sources, content using tools variously described as bots, scrapers, streamrippers, video downloaders, and web crawlers.”
“When a subscriber enters a prompt for an image of Spider-Man, Minions, Iron Man, or any of Plaintiffs’ countless copyrighted characters, Midjourney creates yet another copy of that character which it publicly displays and/or distributes via download.”
“Midjourney’s publication and curation of infringing images on the Explore page show that Midjourney knows that its platform regularly reproduces Plaintiffs’ Copyrighted Works, and that the Explore page is intended to advertise Midjourney’s ability to infringe the Copyrighted Works.”
“Midjourney controls, and has the ability to control, generative outputs through readily available technical protection measures. Despite having the ability to do so, Midjourney has affirmatively chosen not to use copyright protection measures to limit the infringement.”
Horacio Gutierrez: “Piracy is piracy.” Using that phrasing frames the fight against Midjourney in familiar language to the studios’ lobbying group, the Motion Picture ᴀssociation, which also talks up its fight against piracy. But the MPA, so far, has mostly gone after websites that show unauthorized movies and TV shows, not AI companies, despite the prevalence of users flocking to AI-powered tools.
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.
More On Disney & Universal’s AI Lawsuit
What Else Does The Lawsuit Say?
The lawsuit from Disney and Universal outlines how Midjourney’s tools make it easy for users to generate images based on the studios’ intellectual property, such as depictions of characters like Darth Vader or Shrek in unusual settings, like lounging at the beach, the kind of content often referred to as “AI Slop,” which many people have likely encountered on their social media feeds. In their lawsuit, the studios presented AI-generated images featuring characters like Darth Vader, Yoda, Wall-E, Stormtroopers, figures from How to Train Your Dragon, Minions, and Shrek to demonstrate the alleged copyright violations by Midjourney.
The studios argue further that Midjourney can produce these images because its AI models were trained on vast amounts of copyrighted material gathered from across the internet. They point to comments from Midjourney CEO David Holz, who “admitted that to collect the training data, Midjourney pulls off all the data it can, all the text it can, all the images it can.” According to the lawsuit, Midjourney not only enables the creation of content using Disney and Universal’s copyrighted characters, but actively promotes it by featuring such works in the “Explore” section of its website.
What Disney & Universal’s Lawsuit Means For AI & Hollywood
It’s Hollywood’s First Major Pushback Against AI
This lawsuit from Disney and Universal marks Hollywood’s first major pushback against tech companies building AI tools on the backs of their copyrighted material. While AI can offer exciting new ways to create content, studios argue that using their characters without permission is still stealing. The outcome of this case could decide if AI tools have the right to use copyrighted material, and could shape the future of how human creativity and AI coexist in Hollywood.
Source: THR
