This is the moment many have been waiting for since we saw generative AI tools debut. These are tools that are built from all the images on the internet and trained on our work without permission.

It was only a matter of time before a major movie studio would see this and sue, and now two of the biggest have joined forces in order to protect their copyrighted materials.

A coalition of major Hollywood studios, including Disney, Universal, and Marvel, filed a lawsuit against the generative AI firm Midjourney on Wednesday in Los Angeles. The suit describes the company, run by David Holz, as a “bottomless pit of plagiarism.”

The complaint reads, “If a Midjourney subscriber submits a simple text prompt requesting an image of the character Darth Vader in a particular setting or doing a particular action, Midjourney obliges by generating and displaying a high-quality, downloadable image featuring Disney’s copyrighted Darth Vader character.”

The studios explain that Midjourney’s ability to create these images comes from being trained on copyrighted material it took from the internet without permission.

The complaint breaks down the alleged process:

Data Collection: Midjourney is accused of using web scrapers and other tools to download a massive library of protected content. The suit even claims CEO David Holz admitted to this data collection strategy. Infringing Output: After processing this data, the tool can then generate new images of famous characters on demand. When a user asks for a picture of a Minion or Iron Man, the studios argue Midjourney is creating and distributing yet another unauthorized copy.

“Our world-class IP is built on decades of financial investment, creativity, and innovation—investments only made possible by the incentives embodied in copyright law that give creators the exclusive right to profit from their works,” stated Disney chief legal officer Horacio Gutierrez. “We are bullish on the promise of AI technology and optimistic about how it can be used responsibly as a tool to further human creativity. But piracy is piracy, and the fact that it’s done by an AI company does not make it any less infringing.”

The implications here will affect Hollywood forever, so we will be paying close attention as these things develop.

Let me know what you think in the comments.