Warner Bros. Discovery is taking aim at AI startup Midjourney, accusing the company of using its copyrighted characters—including Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Bugs Bunny, Scooby-Doo, and more—without permission. The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles federal court, claims Midjourney allowed users to generate and share unauthorized images of these characters through its AI tools.

Legal experts say the case could have major implications for AI and copyright law. Robert Rosenberg commented, “If a user can prompt ‘cartoon dog solving mysteries’ and get an image clearly identifiable as Scooby-Doo, then the transformation defense looks weak. Courts may decide that AI model training, especially when it results in outputs closely resembling the source, is not transformative enough to qualify as fair use.”

The outcome could shape the broader AI industry, affecting how models are trained and the scope of fair use in generative AI.