American film studios Disney and Universal filed a lawsuit against Midjourney, specializing in the generation of images using artificial intelligence, for copyright violations.
According to CNN, in a petition filed in the California Federal Court, it is claimed that Midjourney “unauthorizedly copied” visual images of characters from a number of famous films belonging to Disney and Universal, including Star Wars and Minions. The Midjourney document is characterized as a “bottomless plagiarism pit.”
“Piracy remains piracy – regardless of whether the image or video was created using artificial intelligence or other technologies. This is still a violation of copyright,” the lawsuit says.
It is reported that the studios previously turned to Midjourney with a request to stop the use of secure characters or to introduce technical restrictions that exclude the possibility of their generation, but the company ignored these appeals.
Disney and Universal claim require compensation in the amount of up to 150 thousand dollars for each work that violates copyright, as well as measures to prevent such violations in the future.
Midjourney has not yet officially commented on the lawsuit. However, its general director David Holz indirectly touched on the topic during a weekly meeting with users.
“I can’t talk about current trials – this is not easy. But I believe that Midjourney will continue to exist for a very long time,” he said.
This lawsuit was the first case when large Hollywood studios, such as Disney and Universal, made claims for violation of copyrights of the company developing and technology, amid the interest of the entertainment industry in generative and generals.