Hollywood studios drop the hammer on Midjourney

NBCUniversal and Disney have filed suit against the generative-AI platform Midjourney for committing copyright infringement on a mass scale.

The Subtitles: This move marks the first major legal action taken by Hollywood studios against a generative-AI company. Previous lawsuits have mostly been restricted to individuals trying to preserve ownership of their name, image, and likeness — and usually, they were negotiating with studios. Unlike them, Disney and NBCU have enough power and money to make serious problems for generative AI.

The Establishing Shot: In a suit jointly filed in California, NBCU and Disney alleged that Midjourney committed direct and secondary copyright infringement by training their AI models on studio IP.

• In their complaint, the studios included dozens of images created by Midjourney’s AI, which they claim are obvious copies of copyrighted characters, ranging from Mufasa to Minions.
• The plaintiffs argue that Midjourney is stealing the expertise that the studios were only able to build through decades of investment in talent, property, and networks.
• Both studios claim they tried to talk to Midjourney first — like they did with other major generative-AI companies — but that Midjourney ignored them.

Following suit: With two of the largest IP libraries in Hollywood, Disney and NBCU have brought the full force of corporate power into the courtroom. This lawsuit resembles the action taken by major news networks, who joined forces to sue AI platform Cohere earlier this year. While both suits are ongoing, the sheer size of the plaintiffs might be enough to stop generative AI in its tracks — and could spell trouble for other AI companies focused on animation.

Prediction: Going forward, expect studios to target the platforms behind generative AI — not the users — as they work to establish legal precedent around copyright violations.