The lawsuit lists more than 150 works that were infringed.
The AI creators previously ignored demands to stop using their intellectual property to train an AI model, the plaintiffs claim.
Disney and Universal have joined forces and filed a lawsuit against the startup Midjourney, accusing it of copyright infringement, CNN reports.
Founded in 2022, Midjourney allows users to create vivid images using generative AI based on text prompts. Like other market participants, including ChatGPT and Stability AI, the company trained its model using large volumes of images from the Internet. Although the developers argue that this complies with the principle of fair use under US law, the approach is causing protests from copyright holders and has already led to several lawsuits.
In a lawsuit filed in federal court in California, Disney and Universal cite examples of Midjourney’s use of copyrighted images from franchises such as Star Wars, Shrek, The Simpsons, The Walking Dead, and more. The plaintiffs say the company has ignored repeated demands to stop such practices. The lawsuit seeks damages of up to $150,000 for each instance of infringement.
The lawsuit lists more than 150 works that are allegedly infringed, meaning the damages from the lawsuit, if Disney and Universal win, could exceed $20 million.
“Piracy is piracy, and it doesn’t matter whether the image was created using AI or other technology — it’s still infringement,” the lawsuit says.
Midjourney has yet to comment publicly on the case.