Hollywood Studios’ First Lawsuit on AI Sends a Warning to Tech Giants: ‘Piracy Is Piracy’
Disney and NBCUniversal have filed a landmark lawsuit against AI startup Midjourney in a federal court in Los Angeles, accusing the company of copyright infringement. The studios allege Midjourney improperly used their copyrighted characters—including Spider‑Man, Darth Vader, Elsa, Homer Simpson, and the Minions—to train its image-generation AI, producing “unauthorized copies” via a subscription-based service that generated roughly $300 million in revenue from around 21 million users . In their 110-page complaint, they describe the platform as a “virtual vending machine” and a “bottomless pit of plagiarism,” asserting that “piracy is piracy,” regardless of whether AI is used . Hollywood’s first major studios to sue over generative AI, they’re challenging AI’s fair-use defense and seeking damages plus a permanent injunction to stop the use of their IP without licensing . The case signals a pivotal shift—Hollywood is insisting AI firms must obtain proper licenses or implement content filters, not merely rely on existing IP freely scraped from media archives .
