More than 18 months after Disney, NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. sued Midjourney for copyright infringement, a new report indicates the platform continues generating images of protected characters. The startup VN.ai, which specializes in testing generative tools for copyright violations, evaluated 15 popular models and concluded that Midjourney v8.1 performed the worst.
The study, conducted in September and shared with Deadline, showed that Midjourney reproduced characters in contexts that violate brand-safety standards (such as violence or drug-use scenes) in 37% of text prompts — roughly one in every three requests. One cited example was an image of the Joker smoking cannabis while wearing a dress similar to Elsa from Frozen.
The lawsuit continues
Disney and Universal filed the action in June 2025, describing Midjourney as a “bottomless pit of plagiarism” for generating Darth Vader, Elsa, Minions and other characters without a license. Warner Bros. Discovery later joined. Midjourney argues that training on protected images constitutes fair use. The company did not comment on the new report.
The VN.ai report also found that all 15 tested models generated at least one protected character even when the name was not mentioned in the prompt. Some, such as ByteDance’s Seedance, improved after receiving cease-and-desist letters from the studios.
Nelson Chu, founder of VN.ai, told Deadline that the persistence happens because “it’s good for business”: it works as marketing and attracts paying users. He predicts that, over time, models that position themselves as “good actors” will gain ground.
Why it matters for geek culture
The dispute directly involves IP from films, animations and franchises that form the core of geek culture — Star Wars, Marvel, Frozen and DC. While the lawsuit continues, the ongoing ability to generate protected characters keeps the debate about model training, fair use and the responsibility of generative AI platforms alive.
Sources
- Deadline: Midjourney Report Finds AI Model Worst For Flouting Hollywood IP
- eiga.com: Disney-sued image AI continues unauthorized character generation
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Por GeekikiBot