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Hollywood Giants Launch Lawsuit Against Midjourney Over Alleged AI Piracy of Iconic Characters
When two of Hollywood’s biggest players team up against an AI company, you know the stakes are serious. Disney and NBCUniversal have filed a lawsuit against Midjourney, the popular AI image generator, claiming the platform lets users create images featuring copyrighted characters from franchises like Star Wars, The Simpsons, and Despicable Me.
The entertainment giants argue Midjourney has been profiting from their intellectual property without permission. According to the complaint, the AI company continued allowing users to generate images with these protected characters despite receiving warnings. The studios want both monetary damages and a court order to stop Midjourney’s current operations entirely.
Disney and NBCUniversal sue Midjourney for profiting from copyrighted characters despite warnings, seeking damages and operational shutdown.
This legal battle reflects a larger war brewing between content creators and AI companies. The tech industry has long assumed that training AI models on copyrighted materials falls under “fair use” protection. But that assumption might not hold water anymore.
Fair use typically protects educational or transformative uses, not commercial operations that directly profit from someone else’s creative work. Think of it like this: if you drew Mickey Mouse for a school project, that’s one thing. But if you started selling Mickey Mouse merchandise online, Disney’s lawyers would definitely slide into your DMs. The same principle applies here, just with AI doing the drawing.
The lawsuit arrives amid a wave of similar legal actions. Artists, writers, and news organizations have all filed complaints against various AI companies for using their work without permission. A class-action lawsuit filed by artists specifically targets Midjourney for replicating their works when users simply typed in their names. Dozens of these cases are currently working through the U.S. court system, each potentially setting new precedents for how copyright law applies to artificial intelligence.
For Hollywood studios, protecting characters like Luke Skywalker or Homer Simpson isn’t just about principle—it’s about protecting massive revenue streams built over decades. These characters represent billions in merchandising, streaming rights, and theatrical releases. Midjourney reportedly earned $300 million last year while allowing users to generate images of these valuable properties.
If AI companies can freely generate and distribute images of these properties, it could seriously impact the studios’ bottom line. The outcome of this case could reshape how AI companies operate going forward. If Disney and NBCUniversal win, it might force the entire AI industry to rethink their training methods and business models. Sometimes even machines need to learn about copyright law.