‘Theft Is Theft’: Disney, NBC Go After AI Firm Midjourney For ‘Blatant’ Piracy

Two of Hollywood’s biggest players – Disney and NBCUniversal – have teamed up to launch a legal assault on the AI world, suing image generator Midjourney for what they call blatant copyright infringement.

According to a federal complaint filed in California and obtained by Axios, the entertainment giants accuse Midjourney of illegally using their copyrighted characters to train its artificial intelligence tools and of generating near-replica images of their intellectual property.

It’s the first time major Hollywood studios have taken a generative AI company to court - a legal showdown that could set a precedent for how studios protect their decades of iconic content in the age of artificial intelligence.

The complaint points to dozens of visual examples of alleged infringement, including AI-generated versions of Disney characters from “The Lion King” and “Aladdin,” and NBCUniversal’s unmistakable Minions. The lawsuit accuses Midjourney of both direct and secondary copyright violations.

Midjourney, the studios claim, refused to play ball even after attempts to resolve the matter quietly.

Midjourney “continued to release new versions of its Image Service, which, according to Midjourney’s founder and CEO, have even higher quality infringing images,” the complaint states. The company, it adds, “is focused on its own bottom line and ignored Plaintiffs’ demands.”

Unlike other AI firms that allegedly agreed to rein in unauthorized use of studio-owned content, Midjourney did not take the issue seriously, the filing alleges.

The move signals that Hollywood is shifting from internal battles with striking actors and writers over AI usage, to an external legal front against AI developers. Disney and NBCU — owners of two of the most valuable IP catalogs in the world — are leading that charge.

Horacio Gutierrez, senior executive vice president and chief legal and compliance officer of The Walt Disney Company, didn’t mince words.

“Our world-class IP is built on decades of financial investment, creativity and innovation – investments only made possible by the incentives embodied in copyright law that give creators the exclusive right to profit from their works,” Gutierrez said. “We are bullish on the promise of AI technology and optimistic about how it can be used responsibly as a tool to further human creativity. But piracy is piracy, and the fact that it’s done by an AI company does not make it any less infringing.”

Kim Harris, executive vice president and general counsel of NBCUniversal, echoed the sentiment: “We are bringing this action today to protect the hard work of all the artists whose work entertains and inspires us and the significant investment we make in our content. Theft is theft regardless of the technology used, and this action involves blatant infringement of our copyrights.”

While the Motion Picture Association represents a broader alliance of studios — including Netflix, Amazon, Paramount, Sony, and Warner Bros. — this lawsuit underscores growing rifts in strategy, as individual companies go on offense.

Other industries have already taken similar action. In February, over a dozen major news outlets sued AI company Cohere, with support from the News Media Alliance, which represents thousands of publications.

The legal strategy emerging from Tinseltown appears clear: go after the platforms creating and distributing infringing content — not the individual users.

Midjourney has not publicly responded to the lawsuit as of press time.