Last year, I started working on a children's book generation product using AI for illustrations. In the process, I discovered Midjourney and I was blown away by the quality.<p>I then tried to find their API so I could use it in my product. Google showed no results. I thought I was Googling wrong.<p>It turns out, Midjourney didn't have an API<p><insert pivot gif from Friends><p>Of course, I set out to build it. I created a POC and posted it on the Midjourney subreddit[1]. That's when I discovered that Midjourney's ToS specified that user's aren't allowed automated access<p>Too late, I had already built it and had a lot of email signups from people wanting it.<p>The initial idea was to have a bunch of Midjourney accounts and let people generate images using my accounts. Now that was a no go since I'd be in violation of their ToS.
To sidestep the issue, I decide to let the end users take the risk. You want API access, you provide your Midjourney account and we'll do the rest.<p>At first I launched a self-hosted version that people would pay once and then use it on their on hardware.
This proved too cumbersome to setup, so I launched the cloud version. Mind you, it took me months to learn this lesson.<p>To say it's been going great is an understatement.<p>I've been building side projects since 2014, starting with HNdigest (which I exited for a whopping $2k ).
The farthest I got was $3,000 MRR in 2019 which was a huge success. Now, ImagineAPI.dev is doing $16k MRR<p>Fast forward to a few days ago. I check my email and see that Midjourney sent me a cease and desist. They had two issues: ToS Violation[2] and Trademark Infringement[3].<p>I want to be clear, I've never intended to harm Midjourney. Every image generating with ImagineAPI.dev has been paid for — we don't allow users to generate free images using Midjourney's relaxed mode. There are alternative API products that do that and we get people asking all the time. However, I wanted Midjourney to benefit from us being around; not to be harmed.<p>However, I certainly don't intend to roll over and kill my product.<p>We're not in violation of the ToS as we don't have any Midjourney accounts. I've updated marketing assets to specify that we're an "(unofficial) Midjourney API". What else should I do?<p>What should I respond to their legal counsel with?<p>Anyone have experience with this type of threat in the past? How did you handle it?<p>P.S.: My legal entity is based in Canada. FWIW.<p>[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/midjourney/comments/11betr7/i_created_an_unofficial_api_for_midjourney/
[2] https://share.cleanshot.com/NPXjkk3c
[3] https://share.cleanshot.com/94ZvY4q4 https://share.cleanshot.com/j47jnx6N