An AI image generator crossed the line, prompting two major media moguls to sue Midjourney.

According to The Verge, two Hollywood powerhouses, Disney and Universal, claim that the unauthorized use of their characters makes Midjourney a bottomless pit of plagiarism. Midjourney creates images based on text prompts, enabling subscribers to generate almost anything they want. However, much of the service is based on characters created and owned by others. According to the lawsuit, the two companies had previously asked Midjourney to stop the infringement, but the company ignored them. The lawsuit also alleges that Midjourney has begun training its video service on copyrighted material, claiming that the service is already likely to infringe on copyrighted works. Here’s a look at the lawsuit:

“Midjourney functions as a virtual vending machine, generating endless unauthorized copies of Disney’s and Universal’s copyrighted works. By helping itself to plaintiffs’ copyrighted works and 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, it is still infringing.

Midjourney’s bootlegging business model and disregard for American copyright law is not only an attack on Disney, Universal, and the hardworking creative community that brings the magic of movies to life; it is a broader threat to the American film industry, which has created millions of jobs and contributed more than $260 billion to the nation’s economy. This case is not a close call under well-established copyright law. Midjourney created a lucrative commercial service by making countless unauthorized copies of the plaintiffs’ copyrighted works, and now it sells subscriptions to consumers so they can view and download copies and derivatives of the plaintiffs’ valuable, copyrighted characters. That is textbook copyright infringement.”

Two years ago, a group of artists filed a class-action lawsuit against Midjourney, StabilityAI, and DeviantArt, alleging that the companies used copyrighted works to train their systems. The new lawsuit includes several Midjourney-generated images of characters owned by Disney and Universal, including Darth Vader, the Minions, Shrek, and Yoda. These are easy to find on Midjourney’s own site.

Source: PCGamer, The Verge