Disney and Universal, Two of the largest cinematographic studies worldwide have filed a lawsuit against the artificial intelligence company Midjourney by infraction of copyright. Companies say that it has made unauthorized use of their intellectual property in regards to the use of some of the best known characters created by the studies and consider that the tool is “A plagiarismless well”
The lawsuit, which has been filed in a federal court in Los Angeles (California), points out that Midjourney has pirate, through its tool for generating images with AI, the libraries of both studies, and created and distributed without permission countless copies of characters of cinematographic sagos such as “Shrek” or “Los Minions”, of Universal, or “The Lion King”, “Aladdín”, “Frozen”, “Marvel” or “The War of the Galaxies”, by Disney.
“Midjourney is the opportunist par excellence of copyright”
“By appropriating the copyright protected by the plaintiffs and then distributing images (and soon videos) that incorporate and copy famous characters from Disney and Universal, without investing a cent in its creation, Midjourney is the opportunist par excellence of the copyright”, They point out the studies in the demand.
“Piracy is piracy, and that an image or video offender has been created with the or other technology does not make it less offender“They argue.”Midjourney’s behavior appropriates the intellectual property of Disney and Universal and threatens to disrupt the fundamental incentives of the US copyright law that promotes US leadership in film, television and other creative arts”
Studies point out that Midjourney’s offense is calculated and intentionally. They also point out that they have asked the company that Stop infringing your works Protected by copyright and, at least, that adopts technological measures, As other AI services have already done, to avoid the generation of offending material. However, they say Midjourney has ignored his demands.
Disney and Universal have requested the court for a preliminary judicial order to prevent Midjourney from copying their works and offering their service to generate images or videos without infractions. Studies too They claim compensation for damages not specified.
Beyond demand, companies have defended the Value of artificial intelligence. “We are optimistic about the promise of AI technology and how it can be used responsibly as a tool to foster human creativity, but piracy is piracy, and the fact that it is carried out by a company of AI does not make it less offender”Said Horacio Gutiérrez, director of the Disney legal area, according to Reuters.
For his part, Kim Harris, executive vice president of NBCuniversal, says that the company’s goal is “Protect the hard work of all artists whose work entertains and inspires us, as well as the important investment we make in our content”
It is not the first time that Midjourney, or other companies focused on content generation tools with artificial intelligence, such as Stability IA, are demanded. Moreover, Disney and Universal’s demand follows other previous ones and is part of a wave of demands filed by copyright ownersincluding media or record stamps, against technology companies for use without permission of protected materials for AI training.
