Warner Bros. Discovery has filed a lawsuit against Midjourney, a leading artificial intelligence (AI) image generator, accusing the company of copyright infringement. The lawsuit, filed in a California federal court, escalates an ongoing debate about how AI companies utilize copyrighted material to train their systems.
The entertainment giant claims that Midjourney has built its business on "the mass theft of content", alleging that the AI platform enables its users to create images and videos of Warner Bros. Discovery’s iconic copyrighted characters. A spokesperson for Warner Bros. Discovery stated, "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."
Lawsuit Highlights Alleged Copying of Iconic Characters
The lawsuit accuses Midjourney of allowing its subscribers to produce AI-generated content featuring characters central to Warner Bros. Discovery properties, including Superman, Wonder Woman, The Joker, Bugs Bunny, Tom and Jerry, Scooby-Doo, and Rick and Morty. Warner Bros. Discovery claims that even prompts like "classic comic book superhero battle", which do not explicitly name specific intellectual property, generate works that bear a striking resemblance to its copyrighted characters.
As evidence, the lawsuit includes numerous examples comparing Midjourney-generated images to official Warner Bros. Discovery stills from movies and TV shows. In one notable example, a prompt involving Batman produces an image highly similar to Christian Bale’s portrayal of the character in "The Dark Knight", including details like the Kevlar plate design of the costume. Another example highlights a 3D-animated Bugs Bunny resembling his appearance in Space Jam: A New Legacy.
The entertainment company argues that this capability is a "clear draw for subscribers", diverting consumers away from purchasing officially licensed merchandise such as posters, wall art, and prints.
Broader Industry Battle Against AI Copyright Infringement
Warner Bros. Discovery is not alone in its legal battle against Midjourney. Earlier this year, Disney and Universal also filed a lawsuit against the AI company, similarly accusing it of copyright infringement. Disney stated that it is "committed to protecting our creators and innovators" and expressed support for Warner Bros. Discovery’s legal efforts. NBCUniversal added, "Creative artists are the backbone of our industry, and we are committed to protecting their work and our intellectual property."
Midjourney, which offers subscription tiers ranging from $10 to $120 per month, has not yet responded to requests for comment. The lawsuit asserts that the platform uses copyrighted content to train its AI system, though the exact details of how this training occurs remain unclear. Warner Bros. Discovery points to statements made by Midjourney founder David Holz in 2022, where he described the company’s approach to training AI as "grab everything they can, they dump it in a huge file, and they kind of set it on fire to train some huge thing."
Legal and Financial Stakes
Warner Bros. Discovery is seeking either the profits Midjourney has earned from the alleged infringement or statutory damages of $150,000 per infringed work. Depending on the number of works involved, this could lead to substantial financial penalties for the AI company.
The legal battle raises critical questions about the applicability of fair use in the realm of AI-generated content. Fair use, a doctrine that allows creators to build upon copyrighted works without a license under certain circumstances, will likely play a central role in determining the outcome of this case. Similar lawsuits have emerged in recent years, including one involving Amazon-backed Anthropic, which settled a case after facing potential damages of hundreds of millions of dollars for using copyrighted books to train its AI.
Looking Ahead
The lawsuit underscores an industry-wide conflict over the use of copyrighted material in AI training. While major studios like Warner Bros. Discovery, Disney, and Universal have taken legal action, companies like Paramount, Skydance, Amazon MGM Studios, Apple Studios, Sony Pictures, and Lionsgate have thus far remained on the sidelines. With the stakes high for both creators and AI companies, the outcome of these lawsuits could shape the future of intellectual property rights in the age of generative AI.
