This is a first attack in the world of artificial intelligence that could be a landmark and have a considerable impact on the development of tools like ChatGPT, Grok, or Midjourney, which is currently at the heart of the controversy.
Indeed, the famous solution that allows generating images via artificial intelligence is directly attacked by Disney and Universal, owners of many successful licenses.
Copyright in question?
While the first generations of AI images already raised many questions about copyright compliance, tools like Midjourney have until now claimed that only users were responsible for their creations.
However, since LLMs are currently trained on billions of data points, the creators of the original works are not consulted on this subject. And while some images generated by Midjourney can be considered new artistic works, or simple images without a specific purpose, the proliferation of images bearing the image of licenses such as Star Wars, the Minions, or even Disney characters, are not to the taste of the rights holders.
As can be read in the summons filed in the Los Angeles court, made public by the Variety newspaper, the images generated by Midjourney are said to be similar to the works of the two American giants, and to infringe copyright.
$300 million in revenue thanks to the studios American
While it is still too early to have precise figures on the situation, Disney and Universal currently estimate that Midjourney has already generated a turnover of 300 million dollars in just two years of operation.
In the lawsuit filed by the two groups, in addition to the restitution of this substantial sum, they are also seeking damages of 150,000 dollars for each work used by Midjourney.
According to the information available in the complaint by NBCUniversal and Disney, Midjourney has already been contacted in the past to no longer use the works in question. If this is true, it could make it more difficult for Midjourney to challenge the lawsuit.
Dozens of other lawsuits pending?
While the Midjourney case may seem surprising at first glance, there are currently around ten other lawsuits pending for intellectual property rights infringement in the United States.
But while no American court has yet made a decision on this matter, it could be that the lawsuit between Midjourney and Disney and NBCUniversal will be a landmark...
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