Disney Headlines for June 17th, 2025
The Walt Disney Company just joined forces with some unlikely partners to unleash Hell on a shady business.
I’ll explain why none of these companies had a choice in this week’s Disney Headlines.
Just Look at the Pictures
Walt Disney Company
I don’t do this often, but I’ll let the pictures do the talking here. Take a look at this link.
The relevant points I’m about to make rely on page 22 and everything from pages 25 through 55.
Midjourney
You can just glance at this to tell where I’m going here. It’s ridiculous.
A company named Midjourney performs generative AI. Specifically, this site generates images on the fly. And the pictures tell the story here.
Photo:Rappler
When someone goes to the creation page on Midjourney, which is hilariously titled “imagine,” they can make pretty pictures.
There’s just one problem. Midjourney has apparently scraped the entirety of pop culture – or at least the most popular elements – to train its AI.
What happens when someone does that? Well, their site becomes a breeding ground for copyright infringement.
I Can Relate…Kind of
Photo:seoclerk.com
This aspect of AI is an ongoing legal issue, one that makes me feel the need to be careful with my wording here.
I’m legitimately one of the most prolific internet writers ever, speaking simply in terms of actual number of words published.
Photo: Computer Hope
Grammarly tells me that it has analyzed 62,556,377 words of mine since I started using it in 2017.
Well, I should say that I used it with that account. I’d had previous ones. Obviously, that’s a comically high estimate, though.
chatgpt
I think my hands would bleed every time I typed if I’d written that much. But the point is that AI scraping impacts me more than most.
I’ve just accepted the fact that I’ll spend part of the later years of my life trying to protect my sweat of brow in court.
chatgpt
Right now, you can ask ChatGPT to write box office and Disney articles in the style of David Mumpower, and something will publish.
I’m not saying it’ll be great, which may be an indictment of AI in 2025 or possibly a self-own. It’s just the reality of my life.
There are MUCH bigger fish to fry than me, and we’re all facing the same issue.
Businesses like Midjourney teach their AI Large Language Models (LLMs) how to do all sorts of impressive things.
AI can code better than I can, and I actually majored in Computer Science. It can also write semi-legibly.
In truth, Grammarly does something similar to AI whenever it catches all my grammar errors when I write.
microsoft
While this app isn’t technically an LLM, Grammarly recently introduced GrammarlyGo, which is.
Similarly, Microsoft 365 now forces people like me to use Copilot whether we like it or not. And I really, really don’t.
The IP Theft Problem
Photo: verdemedia.com
I mention this because at this point, anyone with a Windows PC, an iPhone, Google Search, or access to ChatGPT/DeepSeek uses AI. It’s inescapable.
While the technology remains horribly inaccurate in its infancy, it’s already become an indelible part of the internet experience.
Photo: Disney
There are even a growing number of stories about lonely people using chatbots for companionship.
Realistically, AI has already become a basic element of our daily lives, whether we have noticed the advent of Skynet or not.
Genie
We’re not putting the genie back in the bottle here. If you don’t like your three wishes, it’s a caveat emptor situation.
That monkey’s paw finger isn’t going to un-unfurl, no matter how much you plead. And weird analogies aside, that’s the problem here.
Computer World
The AI training occurred so suddenly that nobody stopped to consider the legal ramifications.
Well, that’s not true. The thieving dirtbags in charge of these businesses absolutely knew. Here’s Sam Altman being wildly defensive about it.
Photo: Bank rate
Basically, AI teams scraped all the valuable content in the world.
Then, they whistled and pretended like that was the equivalent of copying someone’s homework.
Photo: measureupgroup.com
At this point, we have no idea about the actual legality of the obvious copyright infringement.
That’s because the law of the land always lags far behind the speed of technological innovation, which typically moves faster than the applicable lawsuits.
We’re witnessing that right now as The New York Times filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft about 18 months ago.
The purpose of said lawsuit is to draw attention to “billions of dollars in statutory and actual damages.”
These thefts are related to the “unlawful copying and use of The Times’s uniquely valuable works.”
Disney Assembles the Justice League
Photo: Getty
And that brings us back to Disney. Imagine if you’re someone who works at Disney and did a cursory search on Midjourney.
I feel bad for that pool soul. They had to inform CEO Bob Iger about this novel form of theft…and Iger didn’t learn what video games were until February 2024.
Photo by Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney)
The man is 74 years old. It’s a miracle he can work his phone, much less understand the complexities of AI image creation.
Still, Iger can see the same thing you can when staring at those pictures. Midjourney has ripped Disney off. Waaaaaaay off.
(Photo by JC Olivera/Getty Images)
Importantly, Midjourney has the audacity to charge for its services, meaning that it’s making money from Disney’s sweat of brow.
That’s a legal no-no, one Disney’s famed team of lawyers could have easily attacked. Iger’s smarter than that, though.
Walt Disney Company
This issue doesn’t impact just Disney; it affects every longstanding media company in the business of content creation.
So, Disney went to NBCUniversal (or vice versa). The two parties agreed that it would send a stronger message if they worked together.
Photo:nbcuniversal
That’s incredible, given what else happened last week. Disney emerged victorious in a protracted negotiation with Comcast.
As a reminder, Comcast is the corporate owner of NBCUniversal. So, Comcast and Disney were in the middle of finishing a fight.
Photo: Yahoo Finance
Despite this fact, the two parties agreed to lay down their weapons long enough to work together against a common foe.
That’s smart and an effective strategy. Should Disney or NBCUniversal sue Midjourney, they’d look like big corporate bullies picking on the little guy.
Photo: Playbuzz.com
When two storied media corporations work together, they foster the perception that AI is an existential threat…which it is.
Why Disney Must Fight This
Have you seen any footage of these ridiculous Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh horror movies?
These things look like they were filmed on an iPhone by someone really, really drunk, but that’s not the point.
Disney spent literal decades protecting its trademarks and copyrights on various characters such as Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh.
The only reason why the Blood and Honey ridiculousness exists is because the 1920s versions of those characters entered the public domain.
Photo: Jagged Edge
When Disney lost control of its intellectual property, this absurdity became possible.
Now imagine what people could do if they could create uncannily accurate images and videos of Disney characters.
disney
What would we need Disney for if we could do it ourselves on our computers and phones?
You may think that’s ludicrous, but it’s not. A motion picture consists of 24 frames per second.
Getty
The math here is simple. A 90-minute movie consists of 129,600 still images woven together.
You should see where I’m going with this. It is NOT a huge iterative leap for technology like Midjourney to scrape together an entire Disney movie.
Filmmaker magazine
Realistically, that’s one of the next steps once somebody perfects an LLM enough that the image generation is consistent.
Disney and NBCUniversal filed this lawsuit because they recognize the danger here.
Photo: cba.cj
That’s why this Midjourney lawsuit is one of the most fascinating Disney stories in recent memory.
If this court battle goes sideways, everyone is gonna be able to make Mickey Mouse movies on their phones.
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Feature Photo: Disney
