Disney and Universal have teamed up, surprising no one, to file a hefty lawsuit against Midjourney over its image generator. This legal showdown might just have more plot twists than a Marvel mid-credits scene.
Disney and Universal: Midjourney is a “Bottomless Pit of Plagiarism”
As reported by BBC, the two studios filed a lawsuit in federal district court in Los Angeles claiming the AI company’s tool generates “innumerable” copies of characters including Yoda and Darth Vader from Star Wars, Frozen’s Elsa, the Minions from Despicable Me, and Marvels’ Spiderman, the Incredible Hulk, and Iron Man.
Horacio Gutierrez, Disney’s chief legal officer, said that AI “can be used responsibly as a tool to further human creativity.” However, “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,” the studios said in a statement.
Per AP News, Disney and Universal requested Midjourney to stop infringing on their copyrighted characters and to stop image generation of their works.
Creativity Can Build on Others’ Works
According to Syracuse University law professor Shubha Ghosh, “A lot of the images that Midjourney produces just seem to be copies of copyrighted characters that might be in new locations or with a new background. It doesn’t seem like they’re being transformed in a creative or imaginative way.” He added that in copyright law, “creativity can build on other works as long as it adds something new.”
In Support of the Lawsuit
The Motion Picture Association supports the lawsuit. In a statement, the group said that “strong copyright protection is the backbone of our industry” and that there should be a “balanced approach to AI that both protects intellectual property and embraces responsible, human-centered innovation.”
The Recording Industry Association of America, which is also fighting its own legal battles with companies that make AI-generated music, shared the same sentiment and said that the studios’ lawsuit is a “critical stand for human creativity and responsible innovation.”
