Disney & Universal Sue AI Tool Midjourney For Infringement

According to the 110-page complaint, Midjourney is allegedly producing unauthorized replicas of characters like Elsa, Darth Vader, Minions, Shrek, and Homer Simpson, all through user-generated prompts. The studios say it is not just a coincidence or artistic interpretation. They argue that Midjourney trained its AI model using copyrighted images scraped from the internet, many of which originated from Disney and Universal’s creative vaults.

The lawsuit describes Midjourney as a “quintessential copyright free rider and a bottomless pit of plagiarism.” That language is unusually strong for a legal filing and signals how seriously the studios are taking this. They claim the AI company has been profiting from the likenesses and designs that cost billions to create, without investing anything in their development.

“Our world-class IP is built on decades of financial investment, creativity, and innovation,” said Disney’s legal head Horacio Gutierrez in a public statement. “Piracy is piracy, and the fact that it’s done by an AI company does not make it any less infringing.”

NBCUniversal’s General Counsel, Kim Harris, echoed the same point, stating, “Theft is theft regardless of the technology used, and this action involves blatant infringement of our copyrights.”

This is not the first time that artists and creators have raised concerns about AI training on copyrighted work, but it is the first high-profile lawsuit from two of the biggest names in entertainment. Legal observers see it as a turning point in the rapidly evolving fight over creative ownership in the AI era.

Midjourney’s founder, David Holz, previously admitted that the company trained its models using a massive scrape of publicly available internet images, saying, “We weren’t picky.” That quote, included in the lawsuit, is likely to work against them in court. Disney and Universal say Midjourney’s disregard for where its training data comes from is at the heart of the problem.

The studios also claim Midjourney ignored multiple cease-and-desist letters. Instead of adjusting their practices, they say, Midjourney rolled out new versions that made it even easier to produce more accurate and realistic likenesses of copyrighted characters. The lawsuit includes side-by-side comparisons of AI-generated images next to official promotional artwork, with some results nearly indistinguishable from the originals.

What makes this lawsuit particularly notable is that it isn’t just about still images. The studios are preemptively calling out Midjourney’s upcoming video generation capabilities, warning that infringing content is likely already being created behind the scenes. “Given the current functionality of Midjourney’s tools, and the company’s past behavior, there is every reason to believe that its video service is also training on and reproducing our protected works,” the filing claims.

Legal experts believe this case could set a precedent for how courts interpret fair use in the context of AI. Many AI companies argue that training on copyrighted work falls under fair use, especially if the output is considered “transformative.” But that line is getting blurrier as AI improves its ability to recreate highly specific and recognizable imagery.

“It’s sort of a ‘finally’ moment,” said intellectual property attorney Chad Hummel. “Hollywood has now joined the broader resistance to how these models are trained, and the courts will need to define whether fair use can truly apply to AI systems built on unlicensed data.”

Disney and Universal are seeking damages and a permanent injunction that would prevent Midjourney from continuing to generate infringing content. They are also asking for a jury trial, which suggests they are confident in the emotional power of their case and its public resonance.

For AI developers, the outcome of this lawsuit could reshape the rules. If Disney and Universal win, companies may be forced to license training data or limit their AI's capabilities to avoid litigation. On the other hand, if Midjourney prevails, it could strengthen the fair use defense for AI models across the board.

The broader question is what kind of creative future society wants. Should AI be allowed to mimic Mickey Mouse, Iron Man, or Donkey if it never directly copies a file? Or does learning from the look and feel of those characters still count as theft?

One thing is clear. This lawsuit is not just about Disney or Universal, or even Midjourney. It is about the fundamental relationship between creativity, ownership, and the algorithms that now exist to remix culture at the speed of a prompt.