Warner Bros. Discovery is the latest legacy media company to challenge the use of its content in generative AI, filing suit against Midjourney, claiming that the company is engaged in the “theft” of its intellectual property.
With the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on Thursday, WBD is joining The Walt Disney Co. and NBCUniversal in challenging Midjourney’s use of their content.
WBD’s attorneys wrote in the lawsuit, “Midjourney thinks it is above the law. It sells a commercial subscription service, powered by artificial intelligence technology, that was developed using illegal copies of Warner Bros. Discovery’s copyrighted works. The Service lets subscribers pick iconic Warner Bros. Discovery copyrighted characters and then reproduces, publicly displays and performs, and makes available for download (i.e., distributes) infringing images and videos, and unauthorized derivatives, with every imaginable scene featuring those characters. Without any consent or authorization by Warner Bros. Discovery, Midjourney brazenly dispenses Warner Bros. Discovery’s intellectual property as if it were its own.”
The lawsuit claimed that Midjourney “has made a calculated and profit-driven decision to offer zero protection for copyright owners even though Midjourney knows about the breathtaking scope of its piracy and copyright infringement.”
Read Warner Bros. Discovery’s AI lawsuit.
As an example, the lawsuit stated that, with Midjourney’s image generation service, a user can request a picture of Superman “in a particular setting or doing a particular action,” and what’s generated is an image of the Man of Steel character. The same is true for Batman, Wonder Woman, Tweety and Scooby-Doo. The characters also show up even in generic prompts like “classic comic book superhero battle.”
A Warner Bros. Discovery spokesperson said, “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. Midjourney is blatantly and purposefully infringing copyrighted works, and we filed this suit to protect our content, our partners, and our investments.”
A Midjourney spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment. The Hollywood Reporter first reported on the lawsuit.
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