[Young journalist Oh Sihyun] Walt Disney Company, Universal Studios, and Warner Bros have filed a copyright suit against the Chinese AI company, Minimax. 

On the same day, the three Hollywood movie studios stated that in a complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Minimax, which operates video and image generator “Hailuo AI” and AI chatbot “Talkie,” had ignored U.S. law by using copyrighted figures as if they were its own.

The plaintiffs pointed out that Minimax has marketed Hailuo AI as a “Hollywood studio in the pocket,” a nickname the company described as one it “bravely gave itself while building up its business on stolen intellectual property of Hollywood studios.”

According to the complaint, Hailuo provides subscribers with characters from studio libraries that are protected by copyright. These include popular Hollywood movie characters such as Spider-Man, Superman, Star Wars’ Darth Vader, Shrek, and Toy Story’s Buzz Lightyear.

For example, if a subscriber requests a scene or action involving the character Darth Vader, the AI generator produces high-quality images and videos depicting the request, which the subscriber can then download.

The plaintiffs said they had asked Minimax to stop the unauthorized use of their characters, but their requests were ignored.

This is not the first copyright lawsuit filed by Hollywood giants against an AI company.

Earlier, Disney and Universal sued a U.S.-based AI company, MidJourney, in June, and Warner Bros. also filed a lawsuit against MidJourney. 

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