Warner Bros. Discovery Sues Midjourney for Copyright Theft
Warner Bros. Discovery has launched a lawsuit against the AI image generator Midjourney, accusing the latter of copyright infringement.
In the lawsuit, Warner Bros. Discovery says Midjourney allows its subscribers to “pick iconic copyrighted characters” which are then used for “infringing images and videos, and unauthorized derivatives, with every imaginable scene featuring those characters.”
The lawsuit is similar to the one Disney launched along with NBC Universal earlier in the summer, which also revolved around Midjourney’s ability to reproduce copyrighted characters.
Warner Bros. Discovery included a number of examples in its lawsuit showing how Midjourney recreates some of its beloved characters, including Batman, Bugs Bunny, The Joker, Rick and Morty, and Scooby Doo, to name a few.
“The heart of what we do is develop stories and characters to entertain our audiences, bringing to life the vision and passion of our creative partners,” Warner Bros. Discovery says in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter (THR). “Midjourney is blatantly and purposefully infringing copyrighted works, and we filed this suit to protect our content, our partners, and our investments.”
Meanwhile, Disney says it is pleased that Warner Bros. Discovery has “joined the fight against Midjourney’s blatant copyright infringement.” NBCUniversal tells THR that, “creative artists are the backbone of our industry, and we are committed to protecting their work and our intellectual property.”
THR notes that several large studios have not entered this legal battle against Midjourney, notably Apple Studios, Sony Pictures, Lionsgate, Amazon MGM Studios, and Paramount Skydance. Some of these studios harbor their own AI ambitions.
Midjourney works by taking an unimaginably large amount of photos, images, and videos, and then using that data — which it does not seek permission for — to train algorithms that can produce pictures based on the source material. The technology has gotten so good that it can imitate photography, real videos, and iconic copyrighted characters.
The case won’t come down to whether Midjourney used copyrighted Warner Bros. images or not — it clearly did — what it will come down to is whether such a practice is covered by fair use or not.
In June, a judge sided with AI firm Anthropic after it was sued by a group of authors over the training of their books. Anthropic successfully argued fair use.
Image credits: Warner Bros. Discovery vs. Midjourney
