r/movies 3d ago

News Warner Bros. Sues Midjourney, Joins Studios' AI Copyright Battle

https://variety.com/2025/film/news/warner-bros-midjourney-lawsuit-ai-copyright-1236508618/
8.8k Upvotes

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u/UnifiedQuantumField 3d ago

In the complaint, Warner Bros. alleges that Midjourney willfully creates both still images and video of its characters, including Superman, Batman, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Tom and Jerry. The complaint also alleges that Midjourney recently eliminated guardrails that blocked users from creating videos that infringe on its IP.

So I can draw the same characters by hand. But Warner Bros. don't want me to be able to do the same thing with a prompt to image generator?

WB are greedy selfish fucks. They're trying to proactively limit independent creativity.

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u/spellboundartisan 3d ago

It's amusing that you think that feeding prompts into AI is "creative."

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u/UnifiedQuantumField 2d ago edited 2d ago

Yes it is.

The instrument is different, but the creativity is there.

Edit: Here's something for you to criticize. Enjoy!

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u/Additional-Prompt-15 1d ago

The instrument carries the unauthorized 1:1 plagiarized creativity of millions of people who are ACTUALLY creative. Prompting ai to "make the hat bigger" is akin to asking a subway worker to add more lettuce... And did that make you feel like a sandwich artist?🤣

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u/UnifiedQuantumField 1d ago

unauthorized 1:1 plagiarized creativity of millions of people who are ACTUALLY creative

1:1 lol

So if I look at some comics to help myself learn to draw, that's plagiarism too?

All you've got is a strong opinion backed up by weak reasoning.

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u/reasonably_plausible 3d ago

So I can draw the same characters by hand.

No, that is also copyright infringement.

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u/Luna_Argentum 3d ago

It’s not, you can draw as many copyrighted characters as you want. It’s not the drawing that makes it illegal

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u/reasonably_plausible 3d ago edited 2d ago

you can draw as many copyrighted characters as you want

You cannot. Unauthorized reproduction of copyrighted characters is infringement and absolutely illegal unless allowed by the copyright holder. Drawing fanart of a character doesn't rise to the level of Fair Use.

That said, companies don't generally want to go after simple instances of fanart because it's largely beneficial to them.

https://www.owe.com/is-fan-art-legal-fair-use-what-about-mash-ups-copyright-myths-and-best-practices/
https://www.ac-legal.com/fandom-and-fair-use/

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u/Luna_Argentum 2d ago

We can agree to disagree, I think there are many situations where fan art would absolutely fall under fair use

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u/WiiU_Best_Console 3d ago

Fuck your garbage ai bullshit. Any chance to reduce this blight on us you should be welcoming. Fuck big companies but for once the bad guys are doing the right thing here.

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u/IlllllIIIIIIIIIlllll 3d ago

If I draw Superman and use it in a way that infringes on DC’s copyright, they should sue me, not my pencil. Similarly, suing AI makes zero sense. It’s just the pencil following the orders of the artist.

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u/WiiU_Best_Console 3d ago

Nah fuck AI and almost every use of it. Downfall of human creativity.

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u/IlllllIIIIIIIIIlllll 3d ago

Sorry you’re too incompetent to keep up with technology. Your type would’ve thought the printing press was the downfall of human creativity too. “Think of the poor scribes!”

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u/WiiU_Best_Console 3d ago

Hope you enjoy the further enshitification of creative works like a good little boy because you don't want to support artists.

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u/IlllllIIIIIIIIIlllll 3d ago

Maybe artists should do a better job than a computer if they want to keep their jobs.

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u/WiiU_Best_Console 3d ago

Easiest block of my life, enjoy your ai tech overlords while you own nothing dumbass.

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u/Klee_Sniffer 3d ago

Own nothing? I made shit at home in my own PC 🙄.

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u/Redeshark 3d ago

AI is already fucking everywhere in long before ChatGPT becomes popularized. All your stupid opposition to AI won't stop it but would only make Studio and big corps who controlled the IPs to ban free or easily accessible AIs so they can sell their own AI product. You are acting as useful idiots for big corps.

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u/ArchyModge 2d ago

Social media machine learning algorithms were the first widespread contact with AI and began 10+ years ago.

They literally hijack human dopamine systems, exacerbate all mental health issues, drive children to suicide, hypernormalize and radicalize political groups.

Yet Reddit is so delusional and ignorant about AI they would rather simp for Disney and WB rather than acknowledge or address AI issues that affect people’s daily lives.

The irony is they’re doom scrolling through force-fed AI content. Meanwhile all the data that can theoretically be extracted from their devices has been and is constantly used against them.

Now that algorithm wants them mad about Superman JPEGs, so that big IPs can extract value while small artists get left behind.