Midjourney is playing hardball.
The AI image generator is demanding that the Hollywood studios suing it for copyright infringement—including Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Universal Studios—reveal their own secret AI projects. The move aims to flip the script in a pivotal copyright clash over AI training data.
Midjourney's Discovery Demands
Midjourney is now pushing the federal court to compel the studios to reveal extensive details about their internal AI development.
The company is seeking access to a trove of sensitive documents, including:
- AI business plans and research reports
- Complete AI training datasets
- AI model weights
- Presentations on AI shared with company boards
The strategy is clear: prove the studios are hypocrites. As Midjourney attorney Bobby Ghajar stated in a court filing:
"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."
A Legal Setback and an Appeal
This aggressive discovery request follows an initial ruling that limited what the studios had to share. In mid-June, a magistrate judge permitted the studios to withhold most of their internal AI information.
The judge ordered them to only disclose details related to "consumer-facing" AI applications. Midjourney is now formally asking the federal court to overturn that order.
Hypocrisy as a Legal Defense
The outcome of this motion could set a major precedent for future AI copyright lawsuits.
If Midjourney succeeds, it could force transparency on how large media corporations are using AI, potentially weakening their legal attacks on developers. A federal judge's decision here will set the rules of engagement for every other AI company facing similar copyright challenges.