Minions are characters in films produced by Universal Pictures Cinematic/Alamy
Disney and Universal have filed a lawsuit against AI image generator Midjourney alleging mass copyright infringement that enables users to create images that 鈥渂latantly incorporate and copy Disney鈥檚 and Universal鈥檚 famous characters鈥. The action could be a major turning point in the legal battles over AI copyright infringement being negotiated by book publishers, news agencies and other content creators.
Midjourney鈥檚 tool, which creates images from text prompts, has 20 million users on its Discord server, where users type their inputs.
In the lawsuit, the two movie-making giants share examples in which Midjourney is able to create images that uncannily resemble characters each company owns the rights to, such as the Minions, controlled by Universal, or the Lion King, owned by Disney. The companies allege those outputs could only be the result of Midjourney training its AI on their copyrighted material. They also say Midjourney 鈥渋gnored鈥 their attempts to remediate the issue prior to taking legal action.
In the complaint, the companies say “Midjourney is the quintessential copyright free-rider and a bottomless pit of plagiarism.” Midjourney did not immediately respond to 最新麻豆视频’s request for comment.
The lawsuit has been welcomed by at Fairly Trained, a non-profit organisation that promotes fairer training practices for AI companies. “This is a great day for creators around the world,” he says. “Governments have shown worrying signs they might bend to big tech鈥檚 intense lobbying by legalising IP theft 鈥 Disney weighing in makes this that much less likely.”
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Newton-Rex claims Midjourney engineers once told him their actions were justified because art is “ossified”. “Thankfully, this ludicrous defence wouldn鈥檛 stand up in court,” he says.
Legal experts are equally forthright about Midjourney’s likelihood of success defending the case. “It’s Disney, so Midjourney are fucked, pardon my French,” says at the University of Sussex in the UK.
Guadamuz points out that Disney’s general approach to protecting its intellectual property 鈥 rarely, but firmly when it does 鈥 highlights the importance of its intervention. The movie companies acted months after other organisations, including news publishers, pursued AI firms over the alleged use of their proprietary creations. Many of those cases have settled after licensing agreements were reached between the AI companies and copyright holders.
鈥淢edia conglomerates are more interested in infringing outputs. The models are getting so much better that it’s now very easy to produce pretty much any character you can imagine,鈥澛爏ays Guadamuz. He thinks Disney waited because 鈥渦nlike publishers, they’re not looking for licensing agreements to survive鈥.
The involvement of two titans of the creative industry is revealing in itself and marks a watershed moment for AI and copyright, Guadamuz reckons. 鈥淭he fact that they’re going after Midjourney is telling,鈥 he says. The company is a minnow compared to larger AI firms because it only specialises in image generation. 鈥淭his is a message to the larger players to get their act together and start implementing stronger filters, or they’ll be next.鈥
Many large AI companies provide image generation tools within their chatbots, though they tend to more strictly police users鈥 ability to create images incorporating copyrighted characters through blunt guardrails preventing them from even trying.
The less likely alternative is that Disney, which made $91 billion in revenue last year, is seeking to get money from Midjourney. 鈥淭his could also be a message to come to the table and start negotiating. AI isn’t going away, so Disney may be setting this as a marker that they’re open for business,鈥 says Guadamuz.
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