Major Entertainment Companies (Disney, Universal, Warner Bros Discovery) Take Legal Action Against MiniMax Due to Alleged Copyright Violations

Major Entertainment Companies (Disney, Universal, Warner Bros Discovery) Take Legal Action Against MiniMax Due to Alleged Copyright Violations

In a series of high-stakes lawsuits, Walt Disney, Comcast's Universal, and Warner Bros Discovery have taken legal action against Shanghai Xiyu Jizhi Technology Co. Ltd., better known as MiniMax, a Chinese artificial-intelligence company. The lawsuits, filed in the district court in California, allege that MiniMax's image- and video-generating service, Hailuo AI, was built from intellectual property stolen from the three major Hollywood studios.

The lawsuits against MiniMax echo the allegations made by Disney and Warner Bros Discovery against Midjourney this month. Both cases accuse the AI companies of actively engaging in and encouraging infringement by disregarding U.S. copyright law and treating valuable copyrighted characters like their own.

The studios are seeking a court order to halt the infringement and prevent the companies from offering their services without appropriate copyright protections. They are also seeking any profits or financial gains from the alleged copyright infringement.

MiniMax, which serves over 50,000 enterprises and developers across more than 90 countries and regions, and has a reported valuation of over $4 billion, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters. The founder or leadership of MiniMax is not explicitly named in the available sources.

The lawsuit against Midjourney by Disney and Universal was filed in June. The suit claims Midjourney used the studios' famous copyrighted characters to market its service as a "Hollywood studio in your pocket." With a simple text prompt by a subscriber, Midjourney could generate downloadable images and videos of characters such as Darth Vader from "Star Wars," Minions from "Despicable Me," and "Wonder Woman" with Midjourney branding.

Warner Bros Discovery also filed a lawsuit against Midjourney this month, making it the second AI company to face legal action from the Hollywood studios over unauthorized use of copyrighted content in AI training. The cases are part of a wave of such lawsuits against tech companies.

The studios accuse MiniMax of actively disregarding their requests to take reasonable measures to avoid infringement. They argue that MiniMax's actions have caused significant harm to their businesses and the creative industries as a whole.

MiniMax, which serves more than 157 million individual users across over 200 countries and regions, is among the first batch of AI companies seeking a public listing and has a subscription model. The outcome of these lawsuits could set a significant precedent for the use of copyrighted content in AI training and the responsibilities of AI companies in this area.