“Piracy Is Piracy.” Disney and Universal Team Up To File Lawsuit Against AI Company Midjourney

The Walt Disney Company and NBCUniversal are teaming up to take on a major AI company, Midjourney. Disney and Universal filed a lawsuit on Wednesday, June 11th, citing direct and secondary copyright infringement under the Copyright Act.

The lawsuit argues several points, stating that Midjourney “seeks to reap the rewards of Plaintiffs’ creative investment,” selling a service that acts as a “virtual vending machine, generating endless unauthorized copies of Disney’s and Universal’s copyrighted works.”

 

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on June 11th for an unspecified maximum statutory damages, and further seeks an accounting of Midjourney’s proceeds from the alleged infringement, and injunctive relief, per Deadline.

In a notable point in the lawsuit, Disney and Universal claim that the companies asked Midjourney to stop infringing their copyrighted works, but instead,  Midjourney “ignored Plaintiffs’ demands” by releasing and promoting new versions of its Image Service and upcoming commercial AI video service.

The lawsuit cites an example of Midjourney’s infringement of Disney’s Star Wars IP. It explains that if a Midjourney user “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.”

It goes on to reference the recurring issue with characters like the Minions from Universal’s Despicable Me series, Hiccup and Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon, Po from Kung Fu Panda, and the Boss Baby from The Boss Baby.

Put simply, the lawsuit alleges, “Midjourney is the quintessential copyright free-rider and a bottomless pit of plagiarism,” with endless risk for users to misappropriate Disney’s and Universal’s intellectual property.

Although the content is not being created by a person, but rather, an artificial intelligence service, Disney and Universal argue Midjourney is at fault, stating, “Piracy is piracy, and whether an infringing image or video is made with AI or another technology does not make it any less infringing.” For reference, the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “piracy” as “the unauthorized use of another’s production, invention, or conception especially in infringement of a copyright.”

It is also worth noting that this is not Disney’s first time taking a stance on AI. In 2024, Disney paid lobbyists to lobby for AI-related bills in Congress, like H.R.7913: Generative AI Copyright Disclosure Act of 2024 and H.R.6943: No AI FRAUD Act, per OpenSecrets.org.

As of June 11th, Midjourney has not publicly commented on the lawsuit.

The senior executive vice president and chief legal and compliance officer for Disney, Horacio Gutierrez, said in a statement, “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,” per Deadline.

Additionally, the executive vice president and general counsel of NBCU, Kim Harris, said, “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. Theft is theft regardless of the technology used, and this action involves blatant infringement of our copyrights.”

This is a developing story. We will continue to share updates.

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