{"id":233854,"date":"2025-06-12T12:36:58","date_gmt":"2025-06-12T11:36:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/?p=233854"},"modified":"2025-06-12T23:08:33","modified_gmt":"2025-06-12T22:08:33","slug":"riaa-applauds-critical-stand-made-by-disney-and-nbcuniversal-in-copyright-lawsuit-against-ai-image-generator-midjourney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/riaa-applauds-critical-stand-made-by-disney-and-nbcuniversal-in-copyright-lawsuit-against-ai-image-generator-midjourney\/","title":{"rendered":"RIAA applauds ‘critical stand’ made by Disney and NBCUniversal in copyright lawsuit against AI image generator Midjourney"},"content":{"rendered":"

Walt Disney and Comcast\u2019s NBCUniversal <\/strong>have sued artificial intelligence company Midjourney, accusing the image generator of copying their copyrighted characters without permission.<\/p>\n

The complaint, filed Wednesday (June 11) in the US District Court for the Central District of California in Los Angeles, marks the first major AI copyright challenge from Hollywood studio giants, according to the Associated Press <\/i><\/a>and CNBC<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n

Midjourney<\/b> is being sued by Disney<\/b> and NBCUniversal\u00a0over creating and distributing \u201cunauthorized copies\u201d of characters like Star Wars\u2019 <\/i>Darth Vader<\/b>, Elsa<\/b> from Frozen<\/i><\/b>, Lightning McQueen <\/b>from Cars<\/i><\/b>, Buzz<\/b> Lightyear<\/b> from <\/i>Toy<\/i><\/b> <\/i>Story<\/i><\/b>, Sully<\/b> from Monster\u2019s<\/i><\/b> <\/i>Inc.<\/i><\/b>, Marvel\u2019s<\/b> Iron<\/b> Man<\/b>, and Homer Simpson<\/b> from The Simpsons<\/i><\/b>, among others.<\/p>\n

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The studios are seeking a preliminary injunction to block Midjourney from using their intellectual property. They are also seeking monetary damages of up to $150,000<\/b> for every infringed work.<\/p>\n

\u201cMidjourney\u2019s bootlegging business model and defiance of US copyright law are not only an attack on Disney, Universal, and the hard-working creative community that brings the magic of movies to life, but are also a broader threat to the American motion picture industry which has created millions of jobs and contributed more than $260 billion<\/b> to the nation\u2019s economy,\u201d according to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

According to the lawsuit, Midjourney, founded in 2021 by its CEO David<\/b> Holz<\/b>, generated $300 million<\/b> in revenue in 2024 via paid subscriptions ranging from $10 per month to $120 per month for its AI image creation service.<\/p>\n

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\u201cMidjourney\u2019s bootlegging business model and defiance of US copyright law are not only an attack on Disney, Universal, and the hard-working creative community that brings the magic of movies to life, but are also a broader threat to the American motion picture industry.”<\/p>\n

Walt Disney and NBCUniversal complaint<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Subscribers can generate artwork from text prompts, requesting images of characters like Darth Vader and Minions<\/b> characters, the lawsuit said.<\/p>\n

Disney and Universal claimed that they sent cease-and-desist letters to Midjourney, requesting the company to stop generating their characters or implement measures to protect copyright.<\/p>\n

\u201cMidjourney\u2019s infringement is calculated and willful. Plaintiffs have asked Midjourney to stop infringing their copyrighted works and, at a minimum, to adopt technological measures, which other AI services have implemented to prevent the generation of infringing material.\u201d<\/p>\n

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However, the studios claim Midjourney ignored these demands and \u201chas chosen to double down on its unlawful actions by releasing and promoting even newer versions of its Image Service and teasing its soon-to-be-released commercial AI video service.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lawsuit provided a number of examples of AI-generated images featuring characters from franchises including Wall-E, How to Train Your Dragon, Star Wars, <\/i>and Shrek,<\/i>\u00a0among others.<\/p>\n

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The lawsuit adds to mounting legal pressure on AI companies over their training data practices. Last month, music publishers including Universal Music Group, Concord,<\/b> and ABKCO<\/b> filed<\/a> an amended copyright infringement complaint against the\u00a0<\/b>$61 billion<\/b>-valued<\/a>\u00a0AI startup Anthropic<\/b>.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, AI music generator Suno<\/b>, valued at $500 million<\/b>, was\u00a0sued by the major record companies<\/a>, along with fellow AI firm\u00a0Udio,<\/b>\u00a0for allegedly training their systems using the majors\u2019 recordings without permission \u2013 an accusation they\u00a0pretty much admitted<\/a>\u00a0to in court filings in August.<\/p>\n

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“Plaintiffs have asked Midjourney to stop infringing their copyrighted works and, at a minimum, to adopt technological measures, which other AI services have implemented to prevent the generation of infringing material.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walt Disney and NBCUniversal complaint<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In January, Suno was also sued<\/a> for copyright infringement by collection society and licensing body, GEMA<\/b>, which represents the copyrights of around 95,000<\/b> members in Germany and over two million <\/b>rightsholders globally.<\/p>\n

The Recording Industry Association of America <\/b>weighed in on the lawsuit lodged by Disney and NBCUniversal, with Chairman and CEO Mitch Glazier<\/b> saying: \u201cThere is a clear path forward through partnerships that both further AI innovation and foster human artistry.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, some bad actors \u2013 like Midjourney \u2013 see only a zero-sum, winner-take-all game. These short-sighted AI companies are stealing human-created works to generate machine-created, virtually identical products for their own commercial gain.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is not only a violation of black letter Copyright law but also manifestly unfair. This action by Disney and Universal represents a critical stand for human creativity and responsible innovation.”<\/p>\n

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<\/figure>\u201cUnfortunately, some bad actors \u2013 like Midjourney \u2013 see only a zero-sum, winner-take-all game. These short-sighted AI companies are stealing human-created works to generate machine-created, virtually identical products for their own commercial gain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mitch Glazier, RIAA<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This isn\u2019t the first time that Midjourney has been accused of illegally using artists\u2019 work in AI training. Last year, a California federal judge ruled<\/a> that a lawsuit filed by 10<\/b> artists against Midjourney, Stability AI<\/b>, and other firms can proceed after the artists plausibly argued<\/a> unauthorized copying and storage of their works.<\/p>\n

In an interview<\/a> with the Associated Press <\/i>in 2022, Holz described Midjourney as \u201ckind of like a search engine\u201d that pulls in a range of images from across the internet. In a separate interview<\/a> with Forbes<\/i> the same year, Holz said his company’s database was built through “a big scrape of the Internet.”<\/p>\n

When asked about artist consent for copyrighted material, Holz said “there isn’t really a way to get a hundred million images and know where they’re coming from.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The complaint marks the first major AI copyright challenge from Hollywood studio giants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":233908,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[1811,134309],"class_list":["post-233854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-disney","tag-midjourney"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233854\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}