Amid Its Own Copyright Controversy, Midjourney Asks Court to Reveal How Disney Uses AI
Midjourney asked a federal U.S. court to compel Disney, Universal, and Warner Bros. to disclose details of their artificial-intelligence use, including business plans, training datasets, model weights, and board presentations, arguing the information supports its defenses. The studios sued Midjourney for allegedly facilitating widespread infringement of copyrighted characters such as Superman, Scooby-Doo, and Bugs Bunny; Midjourney has asserted a “fair use” defense and also raised an “unclean hands” argument. A magistrate judge denied Midjourney’s earlier request for broad discovery on June 15 as irrelevant, and Midjourney’s lawyers filed a motion asking Judge John Kronstadt to overturn that decision, with attorney Bobby Ghajar arguing that if the studios use similar AI practices it is central to the case. The studios’ lead attorney, David Singer, called the request a “fishing expedition,” while the article notes Midjourney also faces a separate 2023 artist class-action lawsuit in the Northern District of California over alleged training on billions of scraped images, with some claims dismissed and others continuing.
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This story was covered in Looted Legacies, Museum Scandals, and AI Showdowns