Disney and Universal have filed a landmark lawsuit against AI image generator Midjourney, accusing the San Francisco-based company of large-scale copyright infringement and calling its tools a “bottomless pit of plagiarism”.
The entertainment giants allege that Midjourney’s AI model, which creates high-quality visuals from text prompts, unlawfully copied and distributed images of iconic characters including Darth Vader, Yoda, Elsa, Shrek, Iron Man, and the Minions. Filed in federal court in Los Angeles, the suit marks one of the most aggressive legal actions yet taken by Hollywood against the fast-growing generative AI industry.
“Piracy is piracy,” said Disney’s chief legal officer, Horacio Gutierrez, “and the fact that it’s done by an AI company does not make it any less infringing.” NBCUniversal’s general counsel Kim Harris echoed the concern, adding that the lawsuit aims to protect the creative work and investment of the studios and artists they represent.
According to the complaint, Midjourney’s training data included millions of images scraped from the internet without permission—a practice confirmed by founder David Holz in a 2022 interview. The studios claim Midjourney rebuffed requests to stop using their intellectual property or to implement safeguards that would prevent users from generating infringing content.
The studios have filed for a preliminary injunction to block Midjourney from offering its image and video generation services unless it adopts tools to prevent the unauthorised replication of copyrighted content. They are also seeking unspecified financial damages.
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