As we bring the news of Warner Bros. Discovery’s lawsuit against Midjourney, another case involving AI and theft is being settled. Anthropic has agreed to pay at least $1.5 billion into a class action fund as part of a settlement. The litigation was brought by a group of book authors.
The settlement releases Anthropic for it conduct up to August 25. That means new claims could be filed for any conduct after that date. Anthropic will also destroy the datasets used in its models.
The settlement amount is about $3,000 per class work.
A hearing in the case is scheduled for September 8. A “settlement in principle” was previously announced by Anthropic and the creators.
In the case, U.S. District Judge William Aslup ruled that Anthropic’s use of the books in training models was “exceedingly transformative,” a factor to determine if the use was under legal “fair use.” It was a major decision, the first concerning the issue. But, there was still a question of Anthropic pirating books from the internet to train its models, which would still need to settled in a trial.
Even though they’ll be paying $1.5 billion, it is a win for Antropic and possibly other AI companies allowing them to purchase a copy of the work, and then train their model off of it.
While $3,000 might not seem like a lot, it’s more than the $750 statutory damages amount a jury could award and more than the $200 amount if Anthropic were to prevail on its defense of innocent infringement.
2025 is absolutely going down as the year of the comic related lawsuit. We have Diamond’s chapter 11 along with all of the side suits, then there’s artists suing Cadence Comic Art. Now, Warner Bros. Discovery, along with Hanna-Barbera Productions, Turner Entertainment, DC Comics, and The Cartoon Network are suing AI startup Midjourney claiming the tech company “brazenly dispenses its intellectual property as if it were its own.” The filing was submitted September 4.
Warner Bros. Discovery is accusing Midjourney of producing, displaying, and distributing “unauthorized derivatives” of its intellectual property including Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Bugs Bunny, Scooby-Doo, and more.
What’s interesting is that Warner Bros. Discovery claims that Midjourney is infringing even if specific characters aren’t mentioned. Using “classic comic book superhero battle” brings up characters like Superman, Flash, and Batman.
Warner Bros. Discovery further claims Midjourney is aware of its “breathtaking scope of its piracy and copyright infringement” but refuses to protect copyright holders.
It is hard to imagine copyright infringement that is any more willful than what Midjourney is doing here. Midjourney is purposefully exploiting Warner Bros. Discovery’s valuable intellectual property to attract subscribers to Midjourney, and it is profiting by providing subscribers with endless copies and derivatives of Warner Bros. Discovery’s Copyrighted Works.
In the filing there’s numerous examples comparing Warner Bros. Discovery’s original art and output by Midjourney and it goes into depth of representatives of the AI company admitting they don’t seek permission to use work protected by copyright as well as its use by individuals posted to various social media sites like Reddit, Instagram, Discord, and more.
Warner Bros. Discovery is seeking damages as well as the court to block Midjourney from copying, displaying, or distributing its intellectual property. It also wants Midjourney to stop offering AI tools without copyright protection measures.
Check out the initial filings below which are packed with examples from Warner Bros. Discovery:
After an issue at this past weekends Dragon Con where a vendor was removed for selling AI generated items, GalaxyCon has announced a ban on all AI-generated art from its shows, effective immediately. This ban applies to artists, exhibitors, and guests at GalaxyCon’s roster of shows, including: GalaxyCon, Nightmare Weekend, Animate!, and Superstar Comic Con Conventions. GalaxyCon has updated its terms and conditions for anyone exhibiting at its shows with a zero-tolerance policy towards AI-generated art.
The way artificial intelligence is currently being trained presents many ethical and moral issues that simply can no longer be ignored in our industry. GalaxyCon has a long, proud history of supporting artists and their creativity, and we will continue to do so as the fight against unethical AI continues.
– Mike Broder, Founder and President of GalaxyCon
GalaxyCon is the largest geek culture convention organization in North America, with 18 shows scheduled for 2025 and 20 shows for 2026. In 2024, GalaxyCon shows brought in $42 million to local economies, a number that is projected to double in 2025.
FAN EXPO Canada is going on this weekend taking place at the taking place at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. One of the bigger conventions that takes, place it brings in all sorts of celebrities and fans for the weekend celebrating fandoms. The convention kicked off with an issue with one exhibitor though, Bell Canada.
Bell Canada is an internet and tv service provider in Canada and has decided to spend its money for a booth where individuals can get a free photo booth photo of themselves… done up with AI. Yes, at a convention that celebrates creativity, Bell Canada thought it was a good idea to feature a booth that is based off of stolen art.
The use of AI is controversial as it:
Has a highly negative impact on the environment;
It negatively impacts water and electric infrastructure for communities;
Is trained on the works of others, thus considered by many as theft.
That’s the short version.
To add insult to injury, the booth is not far from Artist Alley, an area that is usually filled with individuals who have created their wares on their own and not using AI to do it for them. The type of art that things like an AI photo booth would steal from. The fact it’s a FREE item, potentially distracting and taking away from individuals who are there to sell product, doesn’t help as well. One commentor stated this was a trial run for the company, and if it goes well, they’ll bring it to other conventions.
The con letting that happen tells you exactly what they think of artists.
While there’s policies on FAN EXPO Canada’s site barring IP/copyright theft by exhibitors, we haven’t found one that’s an outright ban on the use of AI. An important question that should be asked is, what are attendees who partake giving up by doing so?
It’s just more gasoline on the fire for a debate that’s been raging for some time when it comes to who should and shouldn’t be exhibiting at conventions and the battle over the use of AI.
You don't need to be shy. You can call them out. It's Bell. They have a huge space and this is how they're using it at Fan Expo. 🤦♂️🤮
SAG-AFTRA and Ethovox have announced a new agreement that ensures performers are protected and empowered in the A.I. age.
Co-founded by BAFTA Games Award-winner Cissy Jones, Ethovox is building a fully-authenticated foundational A.I. model for voice. In addition to ensuring performers can participate in Ethovox’s consensual foundational model knowing that they will be protected and compensated fairly, the voice model will reflect a commitment to diversity and inclusion. Further, the SAG-AFTRA-Ethovox contract leads the field in performer compensation as it provides both session fees and ongoing revenue sharing for the life of the foundational model.
A foundational voice model provides the basis for digital replicas. It requires volumes of underlying voice data to enable the replicas to function properly. The Ethovox model will not be user-facing, and the voices included in the model will not be identifiable in any of the speech generated.
The Ethovox Agreement was approved by the union’s Corporate/Educational & Non-Broadcast Committee and was additionally presented to and approved by SAG-AFTRA’s National Executive Committee.
It was new comic book day yesterday. What’d you all like? Dislike? Sound off in the comments below. While you think about that, here’s some comic news and reviews from around the web to start the day.
On July 24, 2024, former NFL quarterback and civil rights activist Colin Kaepernickannounced a “groundbreaking platform” called Lumi that uses artificial intelligence to create comic book stories. The press release for the platform states Lumi can “[transform] any creator into Disney” as well as cut out “gatekeepers” that keep stories by diverse creators from reaching the market. It has received $4 million in venture capital funding with the firm Seven Seven Six taking the lead.
Kaepernick’s announcement led to outcries in the comic book industry against the Lumi platform. Veteran cartoonist Khary Randolph (We Are Robin, Excellence) took to Facebook and said that he met with Kaepernick about the new platform and voiced his concerns about Lumi would cut out the human creators need to bring comic book to life. He said, “Hard work, a pencil, and paper is all you need to make comics“, and that the writers, artists, colorists, and letterers who spend underpaid decades learning their craft will be hurt by his new product not the wealthy tech executives, who are funding his platform. So, it’s hypocritical that Colin Kaepernick is announcing a platform that will take jobs away from comics creators using social justice language in this initial press release.
It is unlikely that Kaepernick would receive $4 million in venture capital funds for a more traditional pursuit like starting his own comic book company, imprint, hosting platform, or even an anthology publishing the work of marginalized creators. However, according to Celebrity Net Worth, Colin Kaepernick is estimated to have a net worth of $20 million. He also has pull in the entertainment and publishing industry, co-creating a Netflix show about his life with Ava DuVernay and also starting a publishing company called Kaepernick Publishingthat has put out graphic novels by creators like Eve Ewing (Ironheart) and Greg Anderson Elysee (Puerto Rico Strong). As recently as 2023, Kaepernick was paying writers, artists, and letterers to put out graphic novels so it’s reasonable to assume that it’s something that he would be interested in using his money for in the future, but perhaps he was led astray by the promises of lucrative profit from the (currently booming) AI sector.
So, instead of using the $4 million in venture capital funding to set up an AI platform, he could use that money to revive something like the Xeric Grant. Funded by Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creator Peter Laird‘s Xeric Foundation, the Xeric grant awarded $2.5 million to cartoonists from 1992-2011 to self-publish their comics and get in their foot in the door without having to rein in their creativity, art styles, or subject matters for big publishers like Marvel, DC, and even Image Comics. Some well-known creators that got their start through the Xeric grant were Adrian Tomine, Gene Luen Yang, Megan Kelso, Jessica Abel, Jeff Lemire, Tom Scioli, Box Brown, and Hazel Newlevant. The money from the Xeric Foundation allowed them to pursue a singular creative vision and put out work into the larger creative marketplace.
If Colin Kaepernick wants to actually nurture the work of marginalized comics creators and help them in the battle against “gatekeepers”, he would be better served creating something similar to the Xeric grant than an AI platform. He could even expand the scope of Kaepernick Publishing to include comic books of other genres other than nonfiction biographies. These are better options than selling his soul to big tech and reducing creativity to a high tech assembly line, and it would be better for his reputation as a civil rights activist as well.
The use of AI generated images (and more) has been a hot topic and regularly being debated within the comic industry and elsewhere. Some publishers have had issues already getting caught soliciting AI generated images and artists called out for the use. Dark Horse has released a statement as to where it stands on the issue.
To respond to what is becoming a frequently-asked question, a note from Dark Horse regarding AI-generated material:
Dark Horse Comics was originally founded to establish an ideal publishing atmosphere for creative professionals and maintains this focus on supporting independent creators to this day. As such, Dark Horse does not support the use of AI-generated material in the works that we publish. Our contracts include language stating that the creator agrees that the work will not consist of any material generated by computer Artificial Intelligence programs. Dark Horse is committed to supporting human creative professionals with our business.
It’s one of two new comic book days! What are you getting? What are you excited for? Sound off in the comments below. While you think about that, here’s some comic news from around the web to start the day.
It’s a new week! And we’re busy on our end bringing you the latest news. While you begin the week, here’s some comic news and reviews from around the web to kick it off.
