Major entertainment companies Universal and Disney have filed a scathing lawsuit against AI tech giant Midjourney for direct and secondary copyright infringement. Accusing the company of “blatant” copying and piracy, the plaintiffs call Midjourney a “quintessential copyright free-rider and a bottomless pit of plagiarism.” They argue that Midjourney’s acts threaten to “upend the bedrock incentives of U.S. copyright law that drive American leadership in movies, television, and other creative arts.“
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Plaintiffs argue that Midjourney has continued to persist despite numerous requests to cease. In the 110-page legal complaint, they put forward evidence of how Midjourney’s “bootlegging business model” has trained its AI on plaintiffs’ copyrighted works to produce and distribute near-exact imitations, or “copies.” The lawsuit evidences how simple prompts can generate these imitations. Moreover, in the third and fourth examples, it even showcases how a user need not explicitly mention the IP in question to generate an imitation:
The lawsuit characterizes Midjourney’s conduct as knowing infringement, as users can go to the website and search specifically for copyrighted characters. It argues that Midjourney uses these images to attract subscribers. Furthermore, given that Midjourney has restrictions against certain types of outputs, such as nudity, gore, and images for political campaigns, plaintiffs argue that Midjourney willfully chooses not to exercise protective measures for copyright infringement.
Plaintiffs to the lawsuit include Disney Enterprises, Inc., Marvel Characters, Inc., MVL Film Finance LLC, Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC, and Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation (collectively “Disney”), as well as Universal City Studios Productions LLP and DreamWorks Animation L.L.C. (collectively “Universal”). The lawsuit was filed at the U.S. District Court of the Central District of California on June 11.
Specifically, Plaintiffs seek relief over Midjourney’s alleged direct copyright infringement, and demand that Midjourney be barred from further alleged infringement and pay either actual damages (an amount of damage that can be proven Midjourney is responsible for) or statutory damages limited to $150,000 per infringed work. Furthermore, for secondary copyright infringement, they also demand actual damages or statutory damages, again, up to $150,000 per infringed work.
Source: Disney Enterprises Inc. v. Midjourney Inc. (2:25-cv-05275) (PDF)
Featured image © 2025 UNIVERSAL STUDIOS
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