In an ongoing legal battle involving three major Hollywood studios, AI company Midjourney is pushing for those studios to disclose their own AI usage methods.
Last year, Disney and Universal initiated a lawsuit against Midjourney, alleging copyright violations related to its image-generation technology that can produce images of iconic characters owned by the studios, including Bart Simpson and Darth Vader. Not long after, Warner Bros. joined the legal fray with its own lawsuit against the startup.
Midjourney contends that its practice of training AI on images of protected characters falls under the doctrine of fair use.
The legal contention at this stage focuses on what documentation the studios must present during the discovery phase. A judge had previously ruled that studios are required to disclose information on their generative AI practices, but only pertaining to materials that have been shared directly with consumers.
In their recent legal filing, Midjourney is aiming to challenge this restriction, arguing that it allows the studios to selectively submit documents that bolster their claims of market harm, while withholding materials that could potentially support Midjourney’s counterarguments.
Midjourney further asserts that the withheld documents may reveal whether studios are secretly engaging in practices akin to what they are suing Midjourney for, such as developing their own AI models for internal projects related to film and television, which could indicate that the use of unlicensed copyrighted content is common practice within the industry itself.
Additionally, in the filing, Midjourney is requesting that the studios disclose all prompts they have input into the AI, as well as the images generated in response, rather than limiting the request to those outputs that are alleged to infringe on copyrights.
David Singer, the attorney representing the studios, has characterized Midjourney's requests as part of a “fishing expedition.” He further clarified that the studios are not attempting to halt AI technology or put Midjourney out of business; rather, their goal is to prevent Midjourney from unlawfully replicating their films and television series, and from distributing and creating derivative works that include their trademarked characters without proper authorization.
