Midjourney Seeks Court Order for Studios’ AI Use Details

In a high-stakes legal maneuver, artificial intelligence startup Midjourney is asking a federal court to compel Disney, Universal, and Warner Bros. to disclose extensive internal details about their own use of AI. The request, filed this week, aims to overturn a magistrate judge's recent ruling that limited the scope of discovery in an ongoing copyright lawsuit the studios filed against the AI image-generator last year.

The three major Hollywood studios separately sued Midjourney in 2025, alleging the company's technology enables widespread copyright infringement. They contend that Midjourney's models are trained on images of copyrighted characters, such as Superman, Darth Vader, and Bart Simpson, allowing users to generate derivative works without authorization. Midjourney has defended its practices as protected under the fair use doctrine.

The current dispute centers on what evidence the studios must produce during the discovery phase. On June 15, Magistrate Judge Joel Richlin ruled that the studios only need to provide information about their "consumer-facing" AI applications-tools that generate images or videos for public consumption. Midjourney's latest motion, filed with...