I was arguing with an artist the other day about this. I said that Midjourney copies the work of artists the same way that all human artists "copy" each other (checkmate, in my opinion). They pointed out that Midjourney wasn't a person and that I shouldn't treat it like one. They went on to say that it was a bit like enlisting a cheetah in a sprinting event, and that the game was still fair because the rule book didn't specifically outlaw the participation of cheetahs, and because the cheetah had to obey all the same rules that humans were bound by, such as gravity and requiring food for energy. I pointed out that this was obviously not the same, since the entire game falls apart if you let a cheetah play by the same rules as a human. They didn't seem to understand that, though.