Warner Bros. demands Midjourney for unauthorized use of its iconic characters

The producer accuses the company to reproduce and distribute images of Superman, Batman and other characters without authorization.

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• Warner Bros. filed a lawsuit against Midjourney in a federal court in Los Angeles.
  
• The accusation indicates that the company used illegal copies to train its AI model.
  
• Disney and Universal They had already started similar legal processes against Midjoiurney.

Warner Bros. filed a lawsuit at a Federal Court in Los Angeles against the artificial intelligence company Midjourney. The producer accuses the service of generating and distributing images of her most recognized characters without authorization. Among the examples cited are Superman, Batman, Bugs Bunny, Wonder Woman, Scooby-Doo and the Super-Poderous Girls.

According to the legal document reviewed by various media, Midjourney It offers millions of subscribers tools to create detailed visual representations of characters protected by copyright. Warner Bros. He maintains that the results circulate widely online and faithfully reproduce works of their catalog, which configures an infraction.

Deliberate infraction accusations

The complaint states that Midjourney built its artificial intelligence model using “Illegal copies” of materials from Warner Bros. and that also encouraged users to generate images and videos of their characters “in all kinds of scenarios.”

The text also indicates that even a general command as “Classic battle of comic superheroes” produces polished representations of figures of DC Studios, including Superman, Batman and Flash. The company emphasized that Midjourney “believes to be above the law” and that could easily stop this behavior, as restricted by violence or nudity.

The producer states that the company’s behavior generates confusion among customers about what is legal and what does not. Assures that Midjourney deceives subscribers by making them believe that the massive copy and the resulting images have the authorization of Warner Bros. Discovery.

The study indicated that it could demand up to USD $ 150,000 for each infringed work. This type of figures seeks to send a overwhelming message about the magnitude of the dispute and the value of intellectual property in the entertainment industry.

Background: demands of Disney and Universal

The action of Warner Bros. It is not isolated. Studies like Walt Disney and Universal, from Comcastthey had already initiated similar demands against Midjourney. In those cases, the studies described the platform as a “PLAGE WITHOUT PLAGE WITHOUT” that feeds on worldwide characters.

The complaint filed by Disney and Universal in the same Court of Los Angeles detailed examples such as Darth Vader of Star Wars, Elsa of Frozen and the Minions of My favorite villain. Executives emphasized that motivation is to protect the work of artists and strong investments in their catalogs.

Horacio Gutiérrez, Executive Vice President and Legal Director of Disney, declared that the company is optimistic about the potential of AI as a creative tool, but stressed that “Piracy is piracy”regardless of the technology involved. Kim Harris, Executive Vice President and General Advisor of Nbcuniversal, He stressed that they seek to protect the work of those who generate content that inspire millions of people.

The defense of Midjourney

Midjourney, For his part, he has argued that his system needed to be trained with “Millions of images publicly available” To learn visual concepts and associate them with language. In documents presented in August, the company argued that this process constitutes a “fair transformative use”, backed by recent failures in similar cases against other AI companies.

The company has also reiterated that customers are responsible for complying with the terms of use, which prohibit infringing intellectual property rights. Its founder, David Holz, compared the tool in a 2022 interview with a search engine capable of learning from images available on the network, noting that AI, like a person, can observe and reinterpret existing works.

The case adds to a growing global debate on the legal and ethical limits of the training of AI models with protected material, a topic that will continue to mark the relationship between technology and the cultural industry in the coming years.

Written article with the help of an AI content editor, edited by Angel Di Matteo / Diariobitcoin

Original image of Diariobitcoin, created with artificial intelligence, for free use, licensed under public domain.

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