Warner Bros. Sues Midjourney Over Unauthorized AI-Generated Character Images

Warner Bros. has filed a lawsuit against Midjourney, alleging the AI image service enabled unauthorized generation of its copyrighted characters. The complaint, lodged in federal court in Los Angeles, marks the third major studio to take legal action against the San Francisco-based company.

The studio claims Midjourney's tools allow millions of subscribers to create visuals of protected characters including Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. These outputs allegedly replicate Warner Bros.' intellectual property and circulate widely through Midjourney's platform.

Warner Bros. accuses Midjourney of building its model using "illegal copies" of copyrighted material and actively encouraging users to generate infringing content. The lawsuit asserts that even broad prompts yield recognizable depictions of DC Studios characters.

The entertainment giant characterizes Midjourney's actions as willful infringement, stating the company "thinks it is above the law" and could implement restrictions similar to those it already employs for violent or explicit content.