Midjourney—Warner Bros sued Midjourney alleging 'systematic, ongoing, and willful' copyright infringement of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and other characters
On September 4, 2025, Warner Bros. Discovery filed an 87-page copyright infringement lawsuit against Midjourney, claiming the company is engaged in the 'theft' of its intellectual property including Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Bugs Bunny, Scooby-Doo, Tom and Jerry, Powerpuff Girls, and Rick and Morty. The complaint alleged Midjourney's infringement was 'systematic, ongoing, and willful.' When Midjourney launched video generation capabilities, the service initially refused to animate many infringing images of Warner Bros. characters, but within weeks allegedly removed these protection measures and announced it as an 'improvement.' Case consolidated with Disney lawsuit on November 4.
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI Safety | -against | secondary | -0.50 |
| Intellectual Property Ethics | -against | primary | -1.00 |
| Overall incident score = | -0.885 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (critical ×2) × confidence (0.59)
Evidence (1 signal)
Warner Bros filed 87-page lawsuit alleging Midjourney's systematic and willful copyright infringement
On September 4, 2025, Warner Bros. Discovery filed an 87-page copyright infringement lawsuit claiming Midjourney is engaged in the 'theft' of its intellectual property including Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Bugs Bunny, Scooby-Doo, Tom and Jerry, Powerpuff Girls, and Rick and Morty. The complaint alleged infringement was 'systematic, ongoing, and willful.' Midjourney removed protection measures blocking animation of infringing images weeks before the lawsuit.