A thunderbolt in Hollywood. Universal and Disney studios, including their subsidiaries such as DreamWorks, Marvel, Lucasfilm, and Pixar, have filed complaints against Midjourney. They accuse the AI platform of unauthorized reproduction and distribution of images depicting well-known heroes such as Yoda, Hulk, Shrek, and others.
Hollywood vs. the clone factory
To generate these images, Midjourney allegedly trained its models with unauthorized copies of copyrighted works, while marketing a service based on these same infringements (the subscription can cost as much as $120 per month). Disney and Universal claim to have asked Midjourney to cease these practices and implement technical safeguards, as other generative AI services do. The company allegedly ignored these requests and continued its activities, disregarding copyright. This is the basis for this lawsuit.
Midjourney allegedly aggravates its case by using famous characters—like Darth Vader, the Minions, and Iron Man—as implicit selling points. The studios believe the models used pose a serious threat to the creative economy and the legal framework for intellectual property in the United States. Midjourney's strategy, described as "modern piracy," allows it to avoid paying the original creators.
The complaint, which we suspect could be settled amicably and with a large check, is nonetheless significant. This is the first time that such proceedings have been initiated against generative AI by these studios. A wake-up call that must be felt by all companies, from OpenAI (Sora) to Google (Veo), which offer similar, ever-more efficient services.
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