Midjourney Faces Copyright Lawsuit from Disney, Universal For Alleged Illegal AI Training

A new fight has emerged in the artificial intelligence space. Still, this time, it is against Midjourney, as the company has received a copyright infringement lawsuit from two renowned multinational media companies, Disney and Universal. The two media giants claimed that Midjourney allegedly used their intellectual properties (IPs) to train its AI models without obtaining any permissions or licenses.

Recently, many AI companies have formed partnerships and licensing deals that enable them to access content from renowned sources and entities legally; however, this is not yet the case across the entire industry.

Midjourney Faces Copyright Lawsuit From Disney, Universal

The Wall Street Journal reported that global media conglomerates Disney and Universal have filed a lawsuit against the renowned generative AI company Midjourney for alleged copyright infringement. Midjourney is best known for its art and image-generative AI platform, which creates media content for users, and wanders models that can edit existing images.

The lawsuit filed by the media companies in the US District Court for the Central District of California claimed that Midjourney produced numerous AI-generated images featuring renowned copyrighted characters, such as Homer Simpson from "The Simpsons" and Darth Vader from "Star Wars."

This occurred after both studios had already served a cease-and-desist order against Midjourney to allegedly stop the alleged violation of their intellectual property rights, which the AI company reportedly ignored.

Midjourney Allegedly Infringed Content For AI Training

The media companies shared multiple examples of generated images by Midjourney's AI that violate their copyrights and intellectual properties, claiming that these were used to train their AI models.

Disney and Universal are now seeking a jury trial, a court order to prevent Midjourney from infringing on their intellectual property, and monetary damages. That being said, Midjourney is yet to comment on the matter.

Copyright Lawsuits on AI Training

AI companies have faced intense scrutiny over the years, particularly as many entities have pursued them legally for allegedly using copyrighted content without permission for training their models and technology. One of the most notorious companies here was OpenAI, with numerous plaintiffs, including news and media outlets, authors, and others, who have alleged that the company used their content without permission or licensing.

Many of these AI companies that are served with copyright lawsuits have resorted to claiming that content found on the internet and publicly available is "fair use," and can be scraped off the internet without permission.

Suno, an AI company that creates AI-generated music, admitted to online scraping but defended its actions, arguing that it took the data for AI training from the web. Despite this, labels such as UMG, Warner Music Group, and Sony Music Group filed a lawsuit against them, and the Recording Industry Association of America supported another company for copyright infringement. These three labels are now pursuing legal action.

As more deals were made between online sources, media outlets, and even social media platforms among AI companies, cases of illegal copyright infringement have lessened, but are not yet entirely gone, as some individuals still allegedly resort to online scraping.