Disney and NBCUniversal Team Up in New Landmark Lawsuit Against Generative AI Company, Midjourney
The landmark case will likely echo through both Hollywood and the AI-generative industries.
Disney and NBCUniversal have teamed up to take the first legal action against a generative AI company, Midjourney, accusing them of copyright infringement while training their language models.

What’s Happening:
- In the first legal action that major Hollywood studios have taken against a generative AI company, The Walt Disney Company and NBC Universal are teaming up to sue Midjourney, accusing it of copyright infringement.
- The complaint was filed in a U.S. District Court in Central California, and accuses Midjourney of both direct and secondary copyright infringement by using the studios’ IP to train their language model and displaying AI-generated images of their copyrighted characters.
- The suit also says that Midjourney “functions as a virtual vending machine" that generates “endless unauthorized copies" of copyrighted works.
- Dozens of examples were used in the filing, showing Midjourney’s image generation tool to produce replicas of The Minions, characters from Shrek, The Lion King, Aladdin, Frozen, The Simpsons, Star Wars (the ones featured on this page were reportedly a submitted example), and more.
- The lawsuit states, “By helping itself to Plaintiffs’ copyrighted works, and then distributing images (and soon videos) that blatantly incorporate and copy Disney’s and Universal’s famous characters - without investing a penny in their creation - Midjourney is the quintessential copyright free-rider and a bottomless pit of plagiarism. Piracy is piracy, and whether an infringing image or video is made with AI or another technology does not make it any less infringing."
- According to reports, Disney and NBCUniversal have tried to talk to Midjourney directly before taking legal action, but reportedly did not take the issue seriously. Other AI platforms that generate images have said they will implement measures to stop the theft of Disney and NBCUniversal IP.
- According to the complaint, Midjourney continued to release new versions of its image service which have even higher quality images that infringe on the copyrights.
- This is also quite a notable complaint since it’s not only the first taken against a generative AI company by a major studio, but because Disney and NBCUniversal have teamed up to do so - appropriate since they own two of the largest Hollywood IP libraries.
- Disney and NBCUniversal are seeking an unspecified maximum statutory damages, an accounting of Midjourney’s proceeds from the alleged infringement and injunctive relief.
What’s Happening:
- Horacio Gutierrez, senior executive vice president and chief legal and compliance officer for Disney: “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."
- Kim Harris, executive vice president and general counsel of NBCU: “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."
A Long Time Coming:
- One report shares that Hollywood’s AI concerns “so far have been mostly from actors and writers trying to defend their name, image and likeness from being leveraged by movie studios without a fair value trade."
- While this may be true, AI concerns have also permeated the creative landscape, especially in the realm of animation.
- Nearly every generative AI app features templates that can “cartoonify" selfies and photographs, which makes them look like Disney, Pixar, Dreamworks, or Illumination house styles without explicitly stating the obvious source of that look.
- This extends to more software like Midjourney, where you can suggest (speaking from experience) altering a provided photo into say - a 90’s Nickelodeon style - and you’d get images that look strikingly like the unique shows of that era.
- At several animation and computer graphics events I have attended, AI generation is front of mind, with the landscape largely terrified of the potential for shorts and feature creation with just a set of words.
- This lawsuit is a step in the right direction, but personally I’m wary that it’s not just for copyright infringement, but maybe because Disney and NBCUniversal might be developing their own systems that will still leave the bulk of the human artists behind.
- Regardless, the lawsuit is a big move that will hopefully echo throughout not only Hollywood but the AI industries as well.
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