Walt Disney Co. movie studios Universal and Warner Bros. Discovery have filed a lawsuit against China’s MiniMax, accusing the AI company of allowing its Hailuo AI video and image generation service to create copies of their copyrighted characters.
The lawsuit, sent by the companies before a district court in California on Tuesday, notes that MiniMax used images that belonged to them to promote Hailuo’s service as a “pocket Hollywood studio.”
Hailuo allows you to generate and download images and videos featuring Darth Vader from Disney’s “Star Wars” franchise and “minions” from Universal’s “Ugly Ya” series with a simple text query, among other things, the lawsuit says.
The film studios say MiniMax has failed to respond to their demands that it take reasonable steps to prevent infringement of their copyrights, actively encouraged such infringement by disposing of said characters as its own and ignoring the requirements of relevant US law.
“Responsible innovation in artificial intelligence is essential, and today’s lawsuit against MiniMax once again demonstrates our shared commitment to holding those who violate copyright laws accountable wherever they are,” the studios said in a joint statement.
The studios are seeking compensation for the material damages they have suffered, the issuance of a court order to stop the infringements, and a ban on promoting the Hailuo service without implementing the measures necessary to protect copyright.
Earlier this year, the studios filed similar lawsuits against Midjourney.