Warner Bros. Discovery has launched a high-stakes lawsuit against AI image generator Midjourney, accusing the platform of rampant copyright infringement by producing unauthorized versions of iconic characters like Batman, Superman, and others for its millions of subscribers.
The legal action, filed in California federal court, has drawn support from Disney and Universal, escalating the battle over AI’s use of studio-owned intellectual property.
The lawsuit highlights striking examples of Midjourney’s capabilities, claiming that a prompt like “Batman, screencap from *The Dark Knight*” generates near-identical replicas of scenes featuring Christian Bale, while even vague requests like “classic comic book superhero battle” churn out DC heroes without specific prompts.
This suggests the AI was trained on copyrighted material, a practice Midjourney’s founder, David Holz, hinted at in 2022 when he described the company’s approach as “grabbing everything we can, throwing it into a pile, and lighting it on fire for training.” Warner Bros. argues this constitutes blatant theft, with the platform dispensing their characters “as if it were its own.”
The stakes are enormous. Warner Bros. is seeking either all profits Midjourney has earned from the alleged infringements or a hefty $150,000 per infringed work.
With thousands of characters involved — spanning DC Comics, Looney Tunes, and *Rick and Morty*—potential damages could reach into the billions, putting significant pressure on the AI company.
The case draws parallels to a recent settlement in a lawsuit against Anthropic, another AI firm, where authors claimed copyright violations. That settlement, reportedly worth $1.5 billion, saw a judge uphold some AI training practices as fair use, a precedent Midjourney might lean on. However, Warner Bros. could counter with the judge’s acknowledgment of Anthropic’s use of pirated libraries, framing Midjourney’s actions as similarly unlawful. This dual-edged ruling leaves room for both sides to argue their positions, with the outcome potentially setting a major precedent for the entertainment industry and AI development.
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As the legal battle unfolds, the involvement of three major studios underscores growing concerns about AI’s unchecked use of creative content. Whether Midjourney’s innovative technology will be deemed a fair evolution of art or a profit-driven exploitation of copyrighted works remains to be seen, but the fight is already reshaping the intersection of technology and intellectual property.
