Car Photography Company Sues Midjourney for Allegedly Copying Thousands of Its Photos

A car photography company has sued AI image generator Midjourney, accusing it of copying tens of thousands of its copyrighted vehicle photos without permission.

Automotive photography company EVOX Productions LLC filed the lawsuit against Midjourney on Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

EVOX describes itself as the market-leading creator and licensor of high-quality automotive photography. According to the lawsuit, the company has photographed nearly every commercially available car make and model sold in the U.S. since 2000. Its images are widely used on dealership websites and online vehicle marketplaces, appearing in more listings than many car shoppers realize.

According to a report by Bloomberg Law News, EVOX claims Midjourney used tens of thousands of its copyrighted vehicle photos without permission to help train its AI image generator. According to the complaint, Midjourney downloaded the images from publicly available online datasets without obtaining a license or asking for consent. EVOX also alleges the company removed copyright information, such as watermarks, image credits, and metadata, before using the photos to train its AI model.

The lawsuit argues that Midjourney’s AI was built to “reproduce and mimic” the images it was trained on, including EVOX’s photos. EVOX claims Midjourney is profiting from a product that competes with its own licensing business, allowing users to generate car images for a monthly subscription instead of paying to license photographs from EVOX.

EVOX says Midjourney’s actions have harmed its business by reducing the value of its copyrighted work and weakening the incentive to create new images. The company is asking the court to stop what it describes as Midjourney’s unlawful use of its photos and to require the AI company to compensate EVOX.

Midjourney is currently the subject of several high-profile lawsuits. The AI image generator is being sued Disney, Universal, and Warner Bros. over allegations of widespread copyright infringement since the image generator can output AI pictures of recognizable characters such as Yoda from Star Wars.
Midjourney doesn’t deny the allegations, arguing that training AI on copyrighted material qualifies as fair use. Furthermore, Midjourney says that Disney, Universal, and Warner Bros. all use similar generative AI tools internally and wants to force Hollywood to reveal how it uses the technology.

Image creditsHeader photo licensed via Depositphotos.