In an ongoing legal dispute involving three major Hollywood studios, the artificial intelligence company Midjourney is seeking to compel disclosure of how those studios make use of AI technologies.
Disney and Universal brought a lawsuit against Midjourney last year, alleging copyright infringement. They stated that the company’s image-generation systems are capable of producing protected characters, including Bart Simpson and Darth Vader. Warner Bros later joined the proceedings with a similar claim.
Midjourney maintains that training its systems on images of copyrighted characters falls within fair use. The dispute now centres on disclosure material required during the discovery stage of the case.
A judge previously ruled that the studios must provide information on their use of generative AI, but only where it relates to consumer-facing material.
In its latest legal filing, Midjourney seeks to remove that restriction, arguing that it allows the studios to select documents that support their claims of market harm while withholding material that may assist the company’s defence.
The firm further stated that withheld material could indicate whether the studios themselves use image-generation tools internally in story development or in the generation of ideas for films and television productions, suggesting wider industry practice.
Midjourney has also requested disclosure of all prompts used within the studios’ systems, together with the outputs generated, not only those linked to allegedly infringing content.
Counsel for the studios, David Singer, described the requests as a “fishing expedition”, stating that his clients are not seeking to halt artificial intelligence technology, but to prevent the unauthorised use of protected works.
