Warner Bros. Discovery has become the latest Hollywood giant to file a lawsuit against Midjourney, a prominent generative AI company, alleging extensive copyright infringement. The legal action, filed in a California federal court, accuses the AI firm of using the studio’s intellectual property without authorization to train its models and to generate images of iconic characters such as Batman, Superman, Bugs Bunny, and Scooby-Doo.
The lawsuit, which mirrors a similar complaint filed by Disney and NBCUniversal in June, claims that Midjourney has “brazenly” distributed Warner Bros. Discovery’s intellectual property as its own. According to the complaint, Midjourney’s service allows subscribers to create infringing images and videos of copyrighted characters with “every imaginable scene,” directly competing with the studio’s consumer products. The studio is seeking $150,000 in damages for each infringed work, a figure that could lead to financially crippling costs for the AI company.
Midjourney has previously argued that its use of copyrighted material falls under “fair use” and that its terms of service prohibit users from violating intellectual property rights. However, Warner Bros. Discovery’s lawsuit provides side-by-side comparisons of official artwork and Midjourney-generated images to demonstrate the alleged infringement. This legal action is the latest development in an ongoing battle between AI companies and media corporations over the future of intellectual property law and the use of copyrighted content in AI development.
