Warner Bros. Discovery sues Midjourney over copyright infringement
Warner Bros. Discovery filed a lawsuit against Midjourney in September 2025, alleging the AI image generation company unlawfully trained on and continues to generate copyrighted characters including Batman, Superman, and Bugs Bunny without authorization. The suit claims Midjourney operates a profitable business model based on this copyright infringement and has deliberately removed safeguards that would prevent such violations.
What happened
Warner Bros. Discovery filed a lawsuit against Midjourney in September 2025, alleging that Midjourney unlawfully used and distributed copyrighted characters including Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Bugs Bunny, Scooby-Doo, Daffy Duck and Tom and Jerry through its AI image and video generation tools without authorization.
The complaint alleges that Midjourney intentionally produces and distributes unauthorized reproductions and derivatives of WBD's intellectual property to its subscribers, and that Midjourney trained its AI on illegal copies of their copyrighted works. WBD also contends that Midjourney removed restrictions on video generation to further expand this infringement.
Reported impact
WBD alleges that Midjourney operates a profitable subscription service business model directly exploiting WBD's intellectual property without compensation or authorization, with Midjourney reportedly memorizing and reproducing protected characters even when users do not explicitly request them.
Index analysis
The case follows similar lawsuits filed by Disney and Universal against Midjourney in June 2025 and represents significant Hollywood studios seeking to stop AI-generated copyright violations. WBD claims Midjourney has made a calculated, profit-driven decision to offer zero protection for copyright owners despite knowing about widespread piracy and copyright infringement.
U.S. copyright law protects the exclusive rights of content creators to reproduce, distribute, and prepare derivative works based on protected content. The outcome may set important precedents on how copyright law applies to AI-generated content and the liability of AI platforms for training on and generating copyrighted material.
Governance controls
WBD is seeking damages, an injunction to halt Midjourney's infringement, and stronger copyright protections from the court. Midjourney has previously argued in other cases that AI training on copyrighted work is protected by fair use and that its terms of service forbid users from violating intellectual property rights.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.