Disney and Universal on Wednesday morning sued Midjourney, a prominent artificial intelligence company, for copyright infringement in what is the first major legal battle between Hollywood studios and an AI company.

The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles, says Midjourney “blatantly” ripped off Disney and Universal characters, including Homer Simpson, The Minions, and Elsa from “Frozen,” by allowing users to create near-exact matches with its image generating tool. This happened “countless” times, both companies claim in the lawsuit.

Midjourney, Disney and Universal’s filing added, “is the quintessential copyright free-rider and a bottomless pit of plagiarism.”

Reps for San Francisco-based Midjourney did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.

Both studios said they approached Midjourney about their copyright concerns before filing the lawsuit. But Midjourney, the filing said, “ignored” their concerns and is strictly “focused on its own bottom line.”

“We are bullish on the promise of AI technology and optimistic about how it can be used responsibly as a tool to further human creativity,” Disney legal Executive Vice President Horacio Gutierrez told Axios. “But piracy is piracy, and the fact that it’s done by an AI company does not make it any less infringing.”

The lawsuit comes after several Hollywood actors and creators, including Aubrey Plaza, Ben Stiller, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, sent a letter to the Trump Administration earlier this year, saying they were concerned about AI companies violating the rights of copyright owners.

More to come…