Midjourney is pushing to expose how Disney, Universal and Warner Bros. use artificial intelligence internally, as the AI image generator fights a major copyright lawsuit filed by the studios. Gene Maddaus reports for Variety.
The studios sued Midjourney last year, alleging massive infringement of their copyrighted characters. Midjourney has responded with a fair use defense, arguing the studios use AI in similar ways themselves.
In June, magistrate judge Joel Richlin limited Midjourney’s discovery request, ruling that studios only need to share information about consumer-facing AI tools, not internal ones. Midjourney has now filed a motion asking Judge John Kronstadt to overturn that decision.
What Midjourney wants to know
Midjourney’s attorney, Bobby Ghajar, argues that if studios use unlicensed AI models internally, for example for storyboarding, this would prove such practices are industry standard. “If Plaintiffs are doing the very thing they seek to punish, that evidence goes to the heart of Midjourney’s fair use and unclean hands defenses,” Ghajar wrote.
The studios’ lead attorney, David Singer, has dismissed the request as a “fishing expedition.” He insists the case is simple: studios want Midjourney to stop distributing content that includes their copyrighted characters without authorization.
The outcome could set a precedent for how courts handle AI-related discovery disputes across the entertainment industry.
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