Disney and Universal Studios are suing MidJourney AI for copying their shyt

[Adeptus Astartes]

What is the difference between tangible Lego products and intangible, infinitely reproducible AI content?

They brought China to heel. An American tech company should be no sweat. Disney has gone after YouTubers and Etsy sellers, for crying out loud.

If Disney get a judgment in their favor, the AI creators will get fined per infringement if their models spit out something Disney related or that responds to Disney keywords.

They're definitely capable of this. Gemini for example forbids names of politicians from being used for anything remotely defamatory or offensive.

 

[Json]

Can they sue ?

Disney was powerfully enough to get copyright laws extended to keep their early stuff out of public domain longer.

They are at worst going to set the floor for how material is owned in the world of AI. Typing in stuff like Pixar or Muppets might get you clapped with a lawsuit unless you can prove it’s trained on your own work.

 

[Bboystyle]

Midjourney should have an AI be their defense lawyer.

 

[Doobie Doo]

Can they sue ?

Absolutely they can. The issue with Ai and machine learning is when they use copyrighted materials for the learning part.

That's why Timbaland`s bich azz is going to get sued to oblivion.

For those that don't know Timbaland has been having listening sessions online for the past few years playing other people's music to review and people are saying he's been doing it to train ML and now he's signing "virtual' artists allegedly trained off that music

 

[Tribal Outkast]

Something has to be done AI is out of control

 

[DamienWayne]

Absolutely they can. The issue with Ai and machine learning is when they use copyrighted materials for the learning part.

That's why Timbaland`s bich azz is going to get sued to oblivion.

For those that don't know Timbaland has been having listening sessions online for the past few years playing other people's music to review and people are saying he's been doing it to train ML and now he's signing "virtual' artists allegedly trained off that music

Interesting. They may be able to get off by using interpolation or parody excuse but we’ll see

 

[Lonj]

Not too long ago people were proclaiming how liberating AI was for small time creators without the resources or creative skills to see their ideas realized. But in the end it's gonna be only these mega corporations who'll have the power to truly exploit AI. Eventually they may not even have to hire actors/workers at all.

 

[Seoul Gleou]

If these companies can stop people from making money off of the "infinitely reproducible AI content" then said content is dead in the water essentially.

Again, there are billions of AI generated images and videos created and uploaded daily. Disney can't possibly track every anonymous user on forums, social media, private servers, etc. The flood gates are open and it doesn't get any easier from this point.

They brought China to heel. An American tech company should be no sweat. Disney has gone after YouTubers and Etsy sellers, for crying out loud.

If Disney get a judgment in their favor, the AI creators will get fined per infringement if their models spit out something Disney related or that responds to Disney keywords.

They're definitely capable of this. Gemini for example forbids names of politicians from being used for anything remotely defamatory or offensive.

Again, this isn't YouTubers taking hours to animate or act out parodies. It's YouTubers (in the millions) taking minutes to create prompts and upload daily, some with bots. On top of that, getting a judgement in their favor means bushing transformative works and fair use laws (which will never happen).

Gemini may forbid you from using politicians, but other open source and offline models won't.

When executives are ringing the alarm for A.I., it's for a reason. It's the most transformative technology of the 21st century and we're only 25 years in.

 

[Doobie Doo]

Interesting. They may be able to get off by using interpolation or parody excuse but we’ll see

Ai laws are vague af rite now. But if what Timbo is doing is true, this is all allegedly, there has to be some sort of penalty

 

[Adeptus Astartes]

Midjourney should have an AI be their defense lawyer.

People have tried this and the AIs made shyt up

Again, there are billions of AI generated images and videos created and uploaded daily. Disney can't possibly track every anonymous user on forums, social media, private servers, etc. The flood gates are open and it doesn't get any easier from this point.


Again, this isn't YouTubers taking hours to animate or act out parodies. It's YouTubers (in the millions) taking minutes to create prompts and upload daily, some with bots. On top of that, getting a judgement in their favor means bushing transformative works and fair use laws (which will never happen).

Gemini may forbid you from using politicians, but other open source and offline models won't.

When executives are ringing the alarm for A.I., it's for a reason. It's the most transformative technology of the 21st century and we're only 25 years in.

They won't go after individuals, they'll go after the parent companies who make the AIs. Multi-million dollar lawsuits and CnDs will definitely be hitting.

The US copyright office and a couple of lawsuits have already stated that AI isn't covered by fair use and is not subject to copyright protections.

 

[Seoul Gleou]

People have tried this and the AIs made shyt up

They won't go after individuals, they'll go after the parent companies who make the AIs. Multi-million dollar lawsuits and CnDs will definitely be hitting.

The US copyright office and a couple of lawsuits have already stated that AI isn't covered by fair use and is not subject to copyright protections.

I got annoyed so I asked AI to explain better.

The Genie is Already Out of the Bottle

• Open-source models like Stable Diffusion (trained on Disney IP) are already freely available worldwide
• Once weights are downloaded (as small as 4GB files), they can be used indefinitely without corporate oversight
• Example: Despite lawsuits, pirated Photoshop has existed for decades

Offshore & Decentralized AI Development

• Major jurisdictions (Japan, UAE, Singapore) explicitly allow AI training on copyrighted material
• Companies can simply relocate training operations overseas
• Blockchain-based AI (like Bittensor) has no central company to sue

The Filtering Arms Race is Unwinnable

• Current copyright detection fails against:
  • Slightly modified prompts ("Elsa → Frozen princess")
  • Style transfers ("Mickey Mouse in Van Gogh style")
  • Hybrid human/AI works
• Disney would need constant AI updates to catch variants - an unsustainable cost

Fair Use Still Protects Some Cases

• While Warner Bros. Discovery v. AIset limits, courts have upheld:
  • Parody/satire (SNL-style Mickey content)
  • Educational uses (AI art history tools)
  • Non-commercial fan art

The Reality: Disney will win battles against companies like Midjourney, but lose the war against distributed AI as a whole - similar to how the music industry "won" against Napster but lost to decentralized piracy.



In other words, this is futile. Going after midjourney gets rid of midjourney. Literally thousands of the same thing will pop up in its place. Getting rid of Napster didn't kill music piracy and killing ThePirateBay didn't stop torrent pirating.

We are in a new world.

 

[Jonah]

Good

Tired already of AI

Disney already using AI, they just trying to shut out the competition

 

[Bboystyle]

I got annoyed so I asked AI to explain better.

The Genie is Already Out of the Bottle

• Open-source models like Stable Diffusion (trained on Disney IP) are already freely available worldwide
• Once weights are downloaded (as small as 4GB files), they can be used indefinitely without corporate oversight
• Example: Despite lawsuits, pirated Photoshop has existed for decades

Offshore & Decentralized AI Development

• Major jurisdictions (Japan, UAE, Singapore) explicitly allow AI training on copyrighted material
• Companies can simply relocate training operations overseas
• Blockchain-based AI (like Bittensor) has no central company to sue

The Filtering Arms Race is Unwinnable

• Current copyright detection fails against:
  • Slightly modified prompts ("Elsa → Frozen princess")
  • Style transfers ("Mickey Mouse in Van Gogh style")
  • Hybrid human/AI works
• Disney would need constant AI updates to catch variants - an unsustainable cost

Fair Use Still Protects Some Cases

• While Warner Bros. Discovery v. AIset limits, courts have upheld:
  • Parody/satire (SNL-style Mickey content)
  • Educational uses (AI art history tools)
  • Non-commercial fan art

The Reality: Disney will win battles against companies like Midjourney, but lose the war against distributed AI as a whole - similar to how the music industry "won" against Napster but lost to decentralized piracy.



In other words, this is futile. Going after midjourney gets rid of midjourney. Literally thousands of the same thing will pop up in its place. Getting rid of Napster didn't kill music piracy and killing ThePirateBay didn't stop torrent pirating.

We are in a new world.

So midjourney is the new napster

wonder who will be the new Kazaa

 

[Jonah]

I got annoyed so I asked AI to explain better.

The Genie is Already Out of the Bottle

• Open-source models like Stable Diffusion (trained on Disney IP) are already freely available worldwide
• Once weights are downloaded (as small as 4GB files), they can be used indefinitely without corporate oversight
• Example: Despite lawsuits, pirated Photoshop has existed for decades

Offshore & Decentralized AI Development

• Major jurisdictions (Japan, UAE, Singapore) explicitly allow AI training on copyrighted material
• Companies can simply relocate training operations overseas
• Blockchain-based AI (like Bittensor) has no central company to sue

The Filtering Arms Race is Unwinnable

• Current copyright detection fails against:
  • Slightly modified prompts ("Elsa → Frozen princess")
  • Style transfers ("Mickey Mouse in Van Gogh style")
  • Hybrid human/AI works
• Disney would need constant AI updates to catch variants - an unsustainable cost

Fair Use Still Protects Some Cases

• While Warner Bros. Discovery v. AIset limits, courts have upheld:
  • Parody/satire (SNL-style Mickey content)
  • Educational uses (AI art history tools)
  • Non-commercial fan art

The Reality: Disney will win battles against companies like Midjourney, but lose the war against distributed AI as a whole - similar to how the music industry "won" against Napster but lost to decentralized piracy.



In other words, this is futile. Going after midjourney gets rid of midjourney. Literally thousands of the same thing will pop up in its place. Getting rid of Napster didn't kill music piracy and killing ThePirateBay didn't stop torrent pirating.

We are in a new world.

facts, breh

 

[jdubnyce]

Midjourney may be the sacrificial lamb
Cats already out of the bag
@Artificial Intelligence can't be stopped