Disney, Universal Seek $20M in Copyright Lawsuit Against AI Firm

Walt Disney Company and Universal Studios has filed a lawsuit against artificial intelligence image generator Midjourney, accusing the startup of using copyrighted characters to train its AI models without permission. The case was filed in the United States District Court for the Central District of California. The two companies have submitted a 110-page complaint against Midjourney, accusing it of using copyrighted material to train AI models.

Midjourney is a San Francisco-based startup that launched in 2022 and now has over 20 million users. It has a Discord app that takes prompts from users and produces images. According to Disney and Universal, some of the generated images resemble characters like the Minions, Darth Vader, Spider-Man, and Homer Simpson.

According to the lawsuit, Midjourney allegedly ignored cease-and-desist notices from Disney and Universal in 2024 and 2025, respectively. The two companies are seeking damages of over $20 million and an injunction to stop Midjourney’s operations, which include its upcoming generative AI video service. If Disney and Universal are successful, it could mark a turning point for the AI industry and how copyrights function in the digital world.

The lawsuit states, “By helping itself to Plaintiffs' copyrighted works, and then distributing images (and soon videos) that blatantly incorporate and copy Disney's and Universal's famous characters — without investing a penny in their creation — Midjourney is the quintessential copyright free-rider and a bottomless pit of plagiarism."

In a statement to the Associated Press following the lawsuit filing, Midjourney CEO David Holz claimed that “everybody” wants Midjourney to continue operating. He addressed the legal proceedings, stating, "I can't really discuss any ongoing legal things because the world isn't cool like that, but I think Midjourney is going to be around for a very long time.”

In a 2022 interview, before the current lawsuit, Holz defended AI training practices, describing the service as a search engine that pulls images from the internet and creates new ones using publicly available data. The CEO said, "Obviously, it's allowed for people, and if it wasn't, then it would destroy the whole professional art industry — probably the non-professional industry too.”

This is not the first time Midjourney has faced legal proceedings over alleged copyright infringement. In 2024, multiple artists argued in a California court that services like Midjourney and Stability AI copied and stored their work on servers. A federal judge found the argument plausible and allowed litigation against the AI companies to continue. The case by the artists has yet to reach a verdict.