Two major Hollywood studios are suing Midjourney, a popular AI image generator, over its use and distribution of intellectual property.
Disney and NBCUniversal (NBCU) have teamed up to file a complaint against the AI image company.
The complaint, filed in the Central District of California federal court in Los Angeles, cited what it said were multiple examples of fraudulent work.
Some of the intellectual properties featured among the big Hollywood studios are “The Simpsons,” “Star Wars,” “Despicable Me,” “Minions” and more.
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In the complaint, Midjourney is described as a “quintessential copyright free-rider and a bottomless pit of plagiarism.”
FOX Business reached out to Midjourney about the lawsuit but did not immediately receive a response.
Horacio Gutierrez, chief legal and compliance officer of The Walt Disney Company, said in a statement to FOX Business Disney’s world-class intellectual properties were built over decades.
Gutierrez also said that financial investment, creativity and innovation were made possible by copyright laws.
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“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,” Gutierrez said in the statement. “But piracy is piracy, and the fact that it’s done by an AI company does not make it any less infringing.”
This is the first legal action that any major Hollywood studio has taken against a generative AI company, according to Axios.
The lawsuit says the studios had asked Midjourney to stop infringing on their copyrighted material.
“Midjourney, which has attracted millions of subscribers and made $300 million last year alone, is focused on its own bottom line and ignored Plaintiffs’ demands,” the lawsuit states.
Midjourney has also begun advertising its new generative AI video creator along with a new version of its image service.
Kim Harris, executive vice president and general counsel of NBCUniversal, told FOX Business in a statement that “creativity is the cornerstone of our business.”
“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,” Harris said. “Theft is theft regardless of the technology used, and this action involves blatant infringement of our copyrights.”
The lawsuit also mentions that, in 2022, Midjourney founder David Holz did an interview with Forbes saying he never sought the copyright holder’s consent.
“No. There isn’t really a way to get a hundred million images and know where they’re coming from. It would be cool if images had metadata embedded in them about the copyright owner or something,” Holz said, according to the lawsuit.
Holz also finished that thought in the interview by saying there is no registry or way to find a picture on the internet and trace it to an owner, the lawsuit said.
Both Disney and NBCU have requested that Midjourney remove its properties and content.
The companies also requested that Midjourney identify what models were used to train its AI and what steps will be taken to ensure it will not happen again.
Nick Butler is a reporter for Fox Business. Do you have any tips? Reach out to [email protected].
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