Midjourney pushes Hollywood studios to reveal internal AI practices in copyright battle
7 Sources
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Midjourney wants Hollywood studios to reveal the details of their AI usage
As part of an ongoing legal dispute with three Hollywood studios, AI startup Midjourney is seeking to compel those studios to reveal how they use AI themselves. Disney and Universal sued Midjourney for alleged copyright infringement last year, noting that the startup's image-generation models
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Midjourney wants the Hollywood studios that sued it to show the court how they use AI - Engadget
The image generator argued that the companies are also training their AI on copyrighted data. Midjourney wants to see how Warner Bros. Discovery, Disney and Universal Studios use artificial intelligence technologies in their shows and movies, and according to Variety it wants the companies to
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Midjourney Thinks Hollywood Should Fess Up About Using AI
Generative AI is causing some headaches in Hollywood, with Midjourney being sued by major studios last year. Since it's already under the microscope, the tech company thinks the studios going after it should reveal in full how much they're using the controversial technology. Earlier this week, a
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Midjourney is Trying to Force Hollywood to Reveal How it Uses AI
The AI image generator Midjourney is determined to force Hollywood to reveal how the movie industry uses AI -- as the company accuses the studios of hypocrisy. Midjourney is currently being sued by Disney, Universal, and Warner Bros. over allegations of widespread copyright infringement since the
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Midjourney pushes to expose studios' own AI practices in copyright fight
Credit: Sheldon Cooper/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Midjourney is attempting to turn the tables on the Hollywood studios suing it for copyright infringement, asking a federal judge to compel Disney, Universal, and Warner Bros. Discovery to disclose their internal use of artificial
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Midjourney pushes Hollywood studios to reveal internal AI use
AI startup Midjourney is pushing for Hollywood studios Disney, Universal, and Warner Bros. to disclose how they utilize artificial intelligence in their own operations amid an ongoing legal dispute. Disney and Universal sued Midjourney for alleged copyright infringement last year, claiming the
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Midjourney demands studios' AI use records in copyright dispute
* Access the court document about Midjourney from here AI image generator Midjourney is asking a US court to force Disney, Universal, and Warner Bros. to disclose how they use artificial intelligence internally, arguing that the studios may be engaging in the same practices they are suing the
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Midjourney is asking a federal judge to force Disney, Universal, and Warner Bros. to disclose their internal AI usage as part of its defense against copyright infringement claims. The AI image generator argues the studios may be doing exactly what they're suing Midjourney for—training AI models on unlicensed copyrighted content behind closed doors.
Midjourney Challenges Hollywood Studios in Legal Dispute Over AI Practices
Midjourney is attempting to flip the script in a high-stakes copyright infringement lawsuit, asking a federal judge to compel Disney, Universal, and Warner Bros. to reveal how they use generative AI internally. The legal dispute began in June 2025 when Disney and Universal sued the AI image generator for allegedly enabling large-scale infringement of copyrighted characters like Darth Vader, Elsa, and Bart Simpson
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. Warner Bros. Discovery joined the fight three months later in September 2025, accusing Midjourney of "brazen theft" involving characters such as Superman, Batman, and Bugs Bunny, seeking $150,000 per infringed work5
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Source: Mashable
Fair Use Defense Hinges on Studios' Own AI Usage
The current battle centers on the discovery process and what documentation Hollywood studios must provide. Midjourney argues that training its AI models on copyrighted images qualifies as fair use, and crucially, that the studios themselves engage in similar practices
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. The company is seeking access to the studios' AI business plans, research reports, training datasets, model weights, and even board meeting presentations about AI2
. "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," wrote Midjourney attorney Bobby Ghajar2
.Motion to Compel Seeks to Overturn Limited Discovery Ruling
A magistrate judge ruled in mid-June 2026 that the Hollywood studios would only need to provide information about consumer-facing AI applications, not internal tools
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. Midjourney has now filed a motion to compel, asking Judge John Kronstadt to overturn that limitation. The company argues this ruling "unfairly" allows the studios "to cherry-pick only those documents they believe support their market harm claims while depriving Midjourney of documents that would support its defenses"1
. The AI startup claims the "documents [the studios] are withholding are precisely those that would reveal whether, behind closed doors, they are doing exactly what they are suing Midjourney for doing"1
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Source: Engadget
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Industry Custom or Hypocrisy? The Stakes for AI Copyright Law
Midjourney's argument carries significant implications for the broader AI copyright lawsuit landscape. If the studios are developing image-generating AI models "for internal use in storyboarding or ideating content for film or TV, that evidence would equally demonstrate that it is an industry custom, even among the studios themselves, to download and train AI on unlicensed copyrighted content," the filing states
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. The federal judge's decision could set a precedent on what kind of information should be admitted in court for future intellectual property rights cases2
.The studios' lead attorney David Singer dismissed Midjourney's efforts as a "fishing expedition" and stated the studios "do not seek to stop AI technology or even shut down Midjourney's business," but rather "simply want Midjourney to stop copying their movies and TV shows and to stop distributing, publicly displaying, publicly performing, and creating derivative works that include copies of [their] famous characters without authorization"
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. Disney has been the most transparent about its AI interests, announcing a $1 billion investment into OpenAI in late 2025 to bring hundreds of Disney characters to the Sora platform, though those plans collapsed earlier this year3
. What remains unclear is how extensively these studios use AI internally—information that could prove critical to determining whether Midjourney AI usage constitutes fair use or infringement in this closely watched case.
Source: TechCrunch
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