Warner Bros. Discovery has filed a lawsuit against Midjourney, alleging that the AI startup “brazenly dispenses its intellectual property as if it were its own,” according to The Hollywood Reporter. The lawsuit claims that Midjourney has created “countless” infringing images and videos featuring many of Warner Bros. Discovery’s copyrighted characters, such as Superman, Bugs Bunny, Scooby-Doo, among others.

The accusations include Midjourney’s reproduction, display, and distribution of “unauthorized derivatives” of Warner Bros. Discovery’s intellectual property via its AI image and video tools. The lawsuit provides multiple examples of Midjourney’s AI tools seemingly generating images of copyrighted characters like Wonder Woman, Tweety, the Power Puff Girls, and Rick and Morty when prompted with specific situations involving these characters.

Moreover, Warner Bros. Discovery alleges that Midjourney can produce infringing images even without specific character mentions in prompts. For example, following the prompt, “classic comic book superhero battle,” Midjourney reportedly generated downloadable images of Superman, Batman, and Flash. Midjourney is also facing a similar copyright lawsuit from Disney and Universal, who described the AI image generator as a “virtual vending machine” that produces “endless authorized copies” of their content.

Warner Bros. Discovery contends that Midjourney recognizes the “breathtaking scope of its piracy and copyright infringement” yet fails to safeguard copyright holders’ rights.

“It is hard to imagine copyright infringement that is any more willful than what Midjourney is doing here,” the lawsuit declares. “Midjourney is purposefully exploiting Warner Bros. Discovery’s valuable intellectual property to draw in subscribers, profiting by providing them with endless copies and derivatives of Warner Bros. Discovery’s Copyrighted Works.”

Warner Bros. Discovery is seeking damages for the asserted copyright infringement and requests the court to prevent Midjourney from copying, displaying, or distributing its intellectual property. The company also wants to halt Midjourney’s provision of AI tools lacking copyright protection features. Midjourney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.