On June 11, 2025, The Walt Disney Company
(“Disney”) and Universal Pictures
(“Universal”) filed a joint copyright
infringement lawsuit against AI image generator Midjourney in the
U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. The
studios claim damages and Midjourney's profits.
Alternatively, they seek statutory damages of up to US$150,000 per
infringed work, or such other amounts as may be applicable under 17
U.S.C. § 504. This marks the first time major Hollywood
studios have taken legal action against an AI firm for alleged
intellectual property violations – a move that could set a
precedent for how courts address generative AI's use of
copyright content.
The 110-page complaint alleges that Midjourney unlawfully
scraped the content libraries of Disney and Universal to train its
AI model, enabling the platform to generate “endless
unauthorized copies” of iconic characters such as Elsa from
“Frozen” and Darth Vader from “Star
Wars.”
