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 Midjourney lawyer filed a motion arguing that Disney, Universal, and Warner Bros. should have to show what they’ve gotten out of its similarly-named learning model. The motion follows a judge’s ruling in June that limited its ability to learn about said studios’ genAI usage. With this motion, the company is looking to obtain details from each studio, including training datasets and business plans, plus board meeting presentations about generative AI overall.
“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,” said Midjourney attorney Bobby Ghajar. Before this motion, Disney, Universal, and WB each agreed to hand over information related to front-facing consumer information, none of which included internal AI tools. He further argued if such tools exist at these studios, that “equally demonstrates [this] an industry custom, even among the studios themselves, to download and train AI on unlicensed copyrighted content.”
Conversely, David Singer, representing the three studios, countered Ghajar’s statement, and said the studios just want Midjourney “to stop copying their movies and TV shows and to stop…publicly performing and creating derivative works that include copies of Plaintiffs’ famous characters without authorization.” That desire, he added, is something “any copyright holder would assert against any infringer, AI-powered or otherwise.”
Of the three, it’s Disney that’s been the most transparent about its interest in the technology: in late 2025, it announced a $1 billion investment into OpenAI that would bring “hundreds” of Disney characters to the Sora platform. Those plans fell apart earlier this year after SoraAI got shut down, with the media corporation saying it’d still engage with AI platforms and “embrace new technologies that respect IP and the rights of creators.” What that engagement looks like may depend on how this lawsuit, and whatever else Midjourney may uncover from the three companies, shakes out.
[via Variety]
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