Ask HN: Doing $16k MRR. How do I deal with cease and desist?

9 points

2 years ago

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.

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.

It turns out, Midjourney didn't have an API

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

Too late, I had already built it and had a lot of email signups from people wanting it.

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.

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.

To say it's been going great is an understatement.

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

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].

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.

However, I certainly don't intend to roll over and kill my product.

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?

What should I respond to their legal counsel with?

Anyone have experience with this type of threat in the past? How did you handle it?

P.S.: My legal entity is based in Canada. FWIW.

[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

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