According to Reuters, on September 16, Walt Disney, Universal Pictures, a subsidiary of Comcast, and Warner Bros. Discovery jointly filed a copyright lawsuit with the California trial court, targeting the Chinese artificial intelligence company MiniMax. The three Hollywood giants accuse MiniMax's image and video generation service "Hailuo AI" of being built using unauthorized intellectual property stolen from them.
The lawsuit states that MiniMax has "boldly" used famous copyrighted characters from the studios, such as Darth Vader from "Star Wars," the Minions from "Despicable Me," and Wonder Woman, and promoted "Hailuo AI" as a "Hollywood studio in your pocket" to attract users to subscribe to its service.
The complaint states that subscribers can generate and download images and videos branded with MiniMax's "Hailuo AI" watermark through simple text prompts. These contents openly use the aforementioned well-known characters. The lawsuit also mentions that despite previous requests from the studios for MiniMax to take measures to prevent infringement, the company failed to fulfill its responsibilities.
In a joint statement, the three studios said: "It is crucial to take a responsible approach to artificial intelligence innovation. The lawsuit today once again shows our commitment to holding those who violate copyright laws accountable, no matter where they are."
Currently, MiniMax has not responded to the lawsuit.
In this lawsuit, the Hollywood giants not only demand compensation from MiniMax for the profits or economic benefits gained from the alleged infringement, but also seek an injunction from the court to stop MiniMax from continuing to provide its "Hailuo AI" service.
This is not the first time that Hollywood has taken legal action against an artificial intelligence company for infringement. In June of this year, Disney and Universal Pictures sued Midjourney, accusing it of providing unauthorized artificial intelligence-generated copyrighted works. Warner Bros. Discovery later also joined the lawsuit against Midjourney.
