HomeMidjourney demands Hollywood studios disclose AI usage details
In an ongoing legal dispute with three Hollywood studios, AI startup Midjourney is pushing to compel them to reveal how they themselves use AI.
Disney and Universal filed a lawsuit against Midjourney last year, alleging copyright infringement and pointing out that the startup's image-generation models could produce images of characters like Bart Simpson and Darth Vader, which are owned by the studios. Warner Bros. followed with its own lawsuit a few months later.
The startup contends that training its AI models on copyrighted character images falls under fair use.
The current disagreement centers on the documentation the studios must provide during discovery. A judge previously ruled that the studios must disclose information about their generative AI usage, but only when it resulted in “consumer-facing” videos and images.
In its most recent filing, Midjourney aims to overturn that restriction, arguing that it “unfairly” allows the studios “to cherry-pick only those documents they believe support their market harm claims while depriving Midjourney of documents that would support its defenses.”
Midjourney further asserts that the “documents [the studios] are withholding are precisely those that would reveal whether, behind closed doors, they are doing exactly what they are suing Midjourney for doing.”
For instance, the startup argues that if the studios are developing image-generating AI models “for internal use in storyboarding or ideating content for film or TV, that evidence would equally demonstrate that it is an industry custom, even among the studios themselves, to download and train AI on unlicensed copyrighted content.”
In the filing, the startup also contends that the studios should disclose all prompts they used in Midjourney, along with the resulting outputs, not only the prompts that generated the allegedly infringing images.
The studios' lead attorney, David Singer, previously described Midjourney's request for this documentation as a “fishing expedition.”
He also stated that the studios “do not seek to stop AI technology or even shut down Midjourney’s business,” but rather “simply want Midjourney to stop copying their movies and TV shows and to stop distributing, publicly displaying, publicly performing, and creating derivative works that include copies of [their] famous characters without authorization.”
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In an ongoing legal dispute with three Hollywood studios, AI startup Midjourney is pushing to compel them to reveal how they themselves use AI.
Disney and Universal filed a lawsuit against Midjourney last year, alleging copyright infringement and pointing out that the startup's image-generation models could produce images of characters like Bart Simpson and Darth Vader, which are owned by the studios. Warner Bros. followed with its own lawsuit a few months later.
The startup contends that training its AI models on copyrighted character images falls under fair use.
The current disagreement centers on the documentation the studios must provide during discovery. A judge previously ruled that the studios must disclose information about their generative AI usage, but only when it resulted in “consumer-facing” videos and images.
In its most recent filing, Midjourney aims to overturn that restriction, arguing that it “unfairly” allows the studios “to cherry-pick only those documents they believe support their market harm claims while depriving Midjourney of documents that would support its defenses.”
Midjourney further asserts that the “documents [the studios] are withholding are precisely those that would reveal whether, behind closed doors, they are doing exactly what they are suing Midjourney for doing.”
For instance, the startup argues that if the studios are developing image-generating AI models “for internal use in storyboarding or ideating content for film or TV, that evidence would equally demonstrate that it is an industry custom, even among the studios themselves, to download and train AI on unlicensed copyrighted content.”
In the filing, the startup also contends that the studios should disclose all prompts they used in Midjourney, along with the resulting outputs, not only the prompts that generated the allegedly infringing images.
The studios' lead attorney, David Singer, previously described Midjourney's request for this documentation as a “fishing expedition.”
He also stated that the studios “do not seek to stop AI technology or even shut down Midjourney’s business,” but rather “simply want Midjourney to stop copying their movies and TV shows and to stop distributing, publicly displaying, publicly performing, and creating derivative works that include copies of [their] famous characters without authorization.”
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