Midjourney Wants Hollywood Studios to Disclose AI Use in Court
The AI image generator is asking a federal court to overturn a magistrate's order that allowed Warner Bros. Discovery, Disney, and Universal to withhold most information about their AI use, as Midjourney seeks evidence for its fair use defense.
Midjourney, the AI image generator, is pushing for a federal court to reverse a magistrate judge's ruling that permitted Warner Bros. Discovery, Disney, and Universal Studios to keep most details about their artificial intelligence practices confidential.
Last year, the studios sued Midjourney for copyright infringement, alleging that the tool can generate images of copyrighted characters like Superman and Batman. In its defense, Midjourney argues that training AI on publicly available images qualifies as fair use and that the studios themselves employ similar training methods for their own AI models.
Specifically, Midjourney is demanding access to the studios' AI business plans, research reports, training datasets, model weights, and even boardroom presentations about AI. In mid-June, a magistrate judge allowed the studios to withhold most of that information, requiring only data related to "consumer-facing" AI applications.
Now, Midjourney is asking the federal court to overturn that order. According to legal publication Mealey's, Midjourney's attorney Bobby Ghajar stated that the requested evidence is central to the company's fair use defense. If the image generator can demonstrate that the studios are also training their models on copyrighted works, it could undermine their lawsuit. "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 federal judge's decision could set a precedent for future litigation, determining what kind of information is admissible in court regarding AI training practices.
