Warner Bros. has launched a blockbuster legal battle, filing suit against AI image and video platform Midjourney in California federal court on Thursday. The studio accuses Midjourney of brazen copyright infringement, alleging the company knowingly enables users to generate unauthorized images of iconic characters like Superman, Batman, Bugs Bunny, and Scooby-Doo.
The complaint accuses Midjourney of behaving as if it is “above the law,” profiting from piracy while refusing to implement safeguards to prevent the misuse of copyrighted works.
“Midjourney has made a calculated and profit-driven decision to offer zero protection for copyright owners,” Warner Bros. argued, adding that the platform already has the technical ability to block infringing content but deliberately chose not to.
A Pattern of Infringement
The lawsuit includes AI-generated images of Superman, Wonder Woman, Tweety Bird, and Scooby-Doo, allegedly created on Midjourney’s platform. According to Warner Bros., even generic prompts like “classic comic book superhero battle” can result in reproductions of its copyrighted characters.
The filing also notes how Midjourney’s system distinguishes styles — for example, generating one type of image when prompted with “The Joker, DC comic book character,” and another when asked for “The Joker, 1970s animated cartoon character.”
Warner Bros. contends the ability to generate such images strongly suggests Midjourney trained its model using copyrighted works, reformatting them before feeding them back into its AI system. The company says this capability is a major draw for subscribers.
