Joint Lawsuit Filed with Comcast
Midjourney Claims "Legal Under Fair Use Doctrine"
Walt Disney Company, the American media giant, and Comcast, which owns Universal Studios, have filed a lawsuit against the AI image generation company Midjourney.
On June 11 (local time), Bloomberg reported that the companies accused Midjourney of infringing on copyrights for characters from movies, animations, and TV programs, including Star Wars, The Simpsons, Shrek, and Minions.
According to Bloomberg, Disney and Comcast made these claims and filed the lawsuit against Midjourney in a federal court in California on the same day. The two companies requested that Midjourney cease its copyright-infringing activities, but their request was not accepted. It is reported that they are demanding damages of $150,000 (approximately 204 million KRW) per instance of copyright infringement.
In the complaint, they stated, "Illegal copying is illegal copying," and argued, "Whether it is created by AI or by other technologies, copyright infringement does not decrease."
Bloomberg pointed out that this lawsuit is the latest example of ongoing conflicts between major media companies and tech firms. Media companies that own copyrights argue that tech companies should pay fees for using text, images, and videos in AI training.
Like ChatGPT and Stability AI, Midjourney built its AI model using image datasets sourced from the internet. Tech companies claim that this practice is legal, arguing that it falls under the 'fair use' doctrine, which is an exception recognized by U.S. copyright law.
The Midjourney program is available via the messaging app Discord and the company's website, and the number of members on the Midjourney Discord server currently exceeds 21 million.
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