Midjourney accused of ‘brazen theft’ in Warner Bros. Discovery lawsuit

Warner Bros. Discovery is suing Midjourney for copyright infringement, joining Disney and Universal in the battle over AI’s impact on film and TV.

“Midjourney thinks it is above the law. It sells a commercial subscription service, powered by artificial intelligence technology, that was developed using illegal copies of Warner Bros. Discovery’s copyrighted works,” the complaint reads.

The suit claims that Midjourney is built on theft by “brazenly” dispensing Warner Bros. Discovery’s intellectual property. One example? Bugs Bunny, according to the complaint filed on Thursday in California federal court, and The Hollywood Reporter. Other examples include Superman, Batman, the Flash, Wonder Woman, Scooby-Doo, and the Powerpuff Girls, according to the Associated Press.

“The heart of what we do is develop stories and characters to entertain our audiences, bringing to life the vision and passion of our creative partners,” a Warner Bros. Discovery spokesperson said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. “Midjourney is blatantly and purposefully infringing copyrighted works, and we filed this suit to protect our content, our partners, and our investments.”

According to the Associated Press, the lawsuit argues that Midjourney creates “consumer confusion regarding what is lawful and what is not lawful by misleading its subscribers to believe that Midjourney’s massive copying and the countless infringing images and videos generated by its Service are somehow authorized by Warner Bros. Discovery.”

Warner Bros. Discovery is seeking $150,000 per infringed work.

This is just one of many lawsuits against artificial intelligence — Anthropic settled a copyright lawsuit for $15 billion earlier this month, and Disney and Comcast’s Universal’s June complaint alleges that Midjourney is a “bottomless pit of plagiarism.”