Disney and Universal sue AI company over use of copyrighted characters: ‘Piracy is piracy’

Disney and NBCUniversal have accused AI company Midjourney of copyright infringement.

The plaintiffs accuse the company of using its characters, such as Spider-Man, Star Wars‘ Darth Vader and Yoda, Disney’s Princess Elsa from Frozen, the Minions, Homer Simpson, Deadpool and Wolverine, and more via an online service that allows users to create images, according to lawsuit, filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court in the Central District of California in Los Angeles.

“For more than 100 years, Disney and Universal have delighted audiences around the world by investing in and fostering American creative innovation and producing some of the greatest motion pictures and fictional characters of all time,” the lawsuit states. “Midjourney, however, seeks to reap the rewards of Plaintiffs’ creative investment by selling an artificial intelligence (“AI”) image-generating service (“Image Service”) that functions as a virtual vending machine, generating endless unauthorized copies of Disney’s and Universal’s copyrighted works.”

The suit continues, “By helping itself to Plaintiffs’ copyrighted works, and then distributing images mages (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.”

According to the lawsuit, the startup reportedly made $300 million in revenue last year. Its 21 million users, as of September, paid for subscriptions of $10 to $120 monthly in order to, according to the lawsuit, “view and download copies and derivatives of Plaintiffs’ valuable copyrighted characters.” They called it “textbook copyright infringement.”

The lawsuit states that the company had almost 21 million users as of September 2024. It launched its image service in 2022 and reportedly made $300 million in revenue last year.

Disney and NBCU said they asked the company to stop using their work, but the company has not and has released new versions of its Image Service.

In a statement, Horacio Gutierrez, the senior executive vice president, chief legal and compliance officer of the Walt Disney Company, said: “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.”

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Kim Harris, executive vice president and general counsel of NBCUniversal, also provided a statement.

“Creativity is the cornerstone of our business,” Harris said. “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. Theft is theft regardless of the technology used, and this action involves blatant infringement of our copyrights.”

The lawsuit seeks unspecified monetary damages and “permanent injunctive relief” to halt the use of the characters.

EW has reached out to Midjourney for comment.