Warner Bros. Discovery, an American entertainment company, has filed a lawsuit against AI platform Midjourney, accusing it of widespread copyright infringement. The complaint, filed, alleges that Midjourney generates unauthorized images and videos of well-known characters, including Superman, Batman, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Tom and Jerry.
The lawsuit claims Midjourney recently removed guardrails that once prevented users from producing infringing video content, thereby expanding the risk to Warner Bros.’ intellectual property. “Midjourney thinks it is above the law,” the filing states, asserting that the company “brazenly dispenses Warner Bros. Discovery’s intellectual property as if it were its own.” Warner Bros. is represented by the same legal team pursuing similar lawsuits on behalf of Disney and Universal.
The case argues that Midjourney has intentionally failed to adopt protections despite knowing the scale of infringement. The studio seeks statutory damages and an injunction to block the platform from further use of its copyrighted content. Midjourney has countered in previous cases that training on copyrighted works falls under “fair use” and that users must comply with its terms of service. However, Warner Bros. highlighted Midjourney’s new video service and streaming channel as evidence of its intent to compete directly in entertainment markets. The Motion Picture Association voiced support, stating, “We remain concerned that copyright infringement, left unchecked, threatens the entire American motion picture industry, which supports over 2 million jobs in all 50 states.”
