The Midjourney Image Service is a generative artificial intelligence platform that produces images based on requests made by its subscribers.
In early June, business units of The Walt Disney Company and Universal – two of the world’s largest media companies – sued Midjourney for copyright infringement, alleging that Midjourney “set up a lucrative commercial service by making countless, unauthorized copies of … copyrighted works, and now sells subscriptions to consumers so that they can view and download copies and derivatives of Plaintiffs’ valuable copyrighted characters.”
Not only are these images used by Midjourney subscribers; they also are used by Midjourney to promote its Image Service, say the plaintiffs.
To quote the Complaint filed in US District Court: “By helping itself to Plaintiffs’ copyrighted works, and then distributing images (and soon videos) that blatantly incorporate and copy Disney’s and Universal’s famous characters—without investing a penny in their creation—Midjourney is the quintessential copyright free-rider and a bottomless pit of plagiarism. Piracy is piracy, and whether an infringing image or video is made with AI or another technology does not make it any less infringing.”
Examples
The Complaint contained multiple examples of images produced by Midjourney, alongside copyrighted images from the plaintiffs. It’s far-reaching, when one considers the range of characters and story franchises involved, including Star Wars, Shrek, Pixar, Marvel, The Simpsons, Spider Man, The Minions and many others.
In response to the request, “Lightning McQueen racing, cartoon,” Midjourney accessed the data about Disney’s Copyrighted Works that is stored by the Image Service and then reproduced, publicly displayed, and made available for download an image output that copies Disney’s Lightening McQueen character.
In response to the prompt, “Princess Elsa singing in front of an ice castle, Frozen animated movie,” Midjourney accessed the data about Disney’s Copyrighted Works that is stored by the Image Service and then reproduced, publicly displayed, and made available for download an image output that copies Disney’s Princess Elsa character
A preventable situation
Because Midjourney already has technologies in place to prevent distribution of images depicting violence and nudity, and because other AI image- and video-generating services incorporate copyright protection measures, that Midjourney has the wherewithal to do the same thing with the studios’ content.
Further justification
The Complaint outlines the process by which Midjourney ingests copyrighted content, to illustrate the Plaintiffs’ contention that the intent to use copyrighted content was intentional:
“Midjourney, without Plaintiffs’ knowledge or permission, copied Plaintiffs’ Copyrighted Works to train and develop its Image Service. It also shows that Midjourney’s AI Image Service, through software programming and computer storage devices, embodies “copies” of those works, as that term is defined in Section 101 of the Copyright Act, in the AI software that powers the Image Service.”
…and that Midjourney:
- Gathered copyrighted works “from the internet, and other sources, content using tools variously described as bots, scrapers, streamrippers, video downloaders, and web crawlers
- “Cleaned” copies of the underlying works that were collected through a filtering process and reformatted (e.g., converted them to a common technical format
- Used the collected and cleaned data and copyrighted works to “train” its Image Service…. Midjourney’s process of training and making multiple copies of Plaintiffs’ Copyrighted Works was done without Plaintiffs’ approval or authorization
Moreover, Midjourney repeats this process each time it trains and creates a substantially new version of its Image Service. For example, according to Midjourney’s CEO, version 6 of Midjourney was actually the “third model trained from scratch.”
Subscriber search
When a Midjourney subscriber requests an image in Midjourney’s Explore page, the search results are displayed in a gallery format.
A search for “Bart Simpson” publicly displays the infringing images of the Disney’s Bart Simpson character that Midjourney has generated and distributed to its subscribers
There’s more
Beyond simply using copyrighted images to produce other images, there appear to be few limits on what the copyrighted images can be used to produce. The following image was posted by a Midjourney user, on Reddit.
Plea for relief
The Plaintiffs are asking for damages of up to $150,000 per infringed work, plus attorneys fees for direct copyright infringement. The full amount is to be determined, based on a variety of factors
In the event that Midjourney argues that it is not the direct infringer of Plaintiffs’ Copyrighted Works, and that its own subscribers are somehow the direct infringers of the Copyrighted Works, then Plaintiffs plead, in the alternative, that Midjourney is nevertheless liable for secondary copyright infringement.
Further reading
DISNEY ENTERPRISES, INC., a Delaware corporation; MARVEL CHARACTERS, INC., a Delaware corporation; MVL FILM FINANCE LLC, a Delaware limited liability company; LUCASFILM LTD. LLC, a California limited liability company; TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX FILM CORPORATION, a Delaware corporation; UNIVERSAL CITY STUDIOS PRODUCTIONS LLLP, a Delaware limited liability limited partnership; and DREAMWORKS ANIMATION L.L.C., a Delaware limited liability company, Plaintiffs, v. MIDJOURNEY, INC., a Delaware corporation. Complaint for direct copyright infringement and secondary copyright infringement; Demand for jury trial (Document 1). June 11, 2025. Case No. 2:25-cv-05275US District Court for the Central District of California.
A statement from Charles Rivkin on the copyright infringement lawsuit filed today by Disney and Universal. Press release. June 11, 2025. Motion Picture Association
Why it matters
“Strong copyright protection is the backbone of our industry. A balanced approach to AI that both protects intellectual property and embraces responsible, human-centered innovation is critical for maintaining America’s global leadership in creative industries,” said Charles Rivkin about the copyright infringement lawsuit filed by Disney and NBCUniversal against Midjourney.
Quoting from the Complaint:
“1. For more than 100 years, Disney and Universal have delighted audiences around the world by investing in and fostering American creative innovation and producing some of the greatest motion pictures and fictional characters of all time. Midjourney, however, seeks to reap the rewards of Plaintiffs’ creative investment by selling an artificial intelligence (“AI”) image-generating service (“Image Service”) that functions as a virtual vending machine, generating endless unauthorized copies of Disney’s and Universal’s copyrighted works.
“2. By helping itself to Plaintiffs’ copyrighted works, and then distributing images (and soon videos) that blatantly incorporate and copy Disney’s and Universal’s famous characters—without investing a penny in their creation—Midjourney is the quintessential copyright free-rider and a bottomless pit of plagiarism. Piracy is piracy, and whether an infringing image or video is made with AI or another technology does not make it any less infringing. Midjourney’s conduct misappropriates Disney’s and Universal’s intellectual property and threatens to upend the bedrock incentives of U.S. copyright law that drive American leadership in movies, television, and other creative arts.”
