For Reuters, Dawn Chmielewski reports on the alleged copyright infringement.
In the suit filed by seven corporate entities at the studios that own or control copyrights for the various Disney and Universal Pictures film units, the studios offered examples of Midjourney animations that include Disney characters, such as Yoda wielding a lightsaber, Bart Simpson riding a skateboard, Marvel’s Iron Man soaring above the clouds and Pixar’s Buzz Lightyear taking flight.
The image generator also recreated such Universal characters as “How to Train Your Dragon’s” dragon, Toothless, the green ogre “Shrek,” and Po from “Kung Fu Panda.”
“By helping itself to plaintiffs’ copyrighted works, and then distributing images (and soon videos) that blatantly incorporate and copy Disney’s and Universal’s famous characters — without investing a penny in their creation — Midjourney is the quintessential copyright free-rider and a bottomless pit of plagiarism,” the suit alleges.
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