{"id":361,"date":"2026-07-05T19:45:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T14:45:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=361"},"modified":"2026-07-05T19:45:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T14:45:20","slug":"midjourney-pushes-to-expose-studios-own-ai-practices-in-copyright-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=361","title":{"rendered":"Midjourney pushes to expose studios&#8217; own AI practices in copyright fight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"article\">\n<p>Midjourney is attempting to turn the tables on the Hollywood studios suing it for copyright infringement, asking a federal judge to compel Disney, Universal, and Warner Bros. Discovery to disclose their internal use of artificial intelligence, <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2026\/film\/news\/midjourney-studios-ai-copyright-discovery-1236800902\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-ga-click=\"1\" data-ga-label=\"$text\" data-ga-item=\"text-link\" data-ga-module=\"content_body\" title=\"(opens in a new window)\">according to a <em>Variety<\/em> report published this week<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"flex mx-auto mt-8 w-full max-w-3xl font-sans text-lg leading-normal md:text-xl md:leading-7\">\n        <span class=\"font-bold text-primary-400\">SEE ALSO:<\/span><br \/>\n        <a href=\"https:\/\/mashable.com\/article\/elon-musk-trial-verdict\" class=\"flex items-center text-secondary-300\"><br \/>\n            <span class=\"ml-1\">Jury tosses Musk OpenAI lawsuit, saves Sam Altman<\/span><br \/>\n            <svg class=\"ml-1 w-4 h-4 font-normal fill-current\"><use href=\"http:\/\/mashable.com\/images\/icons\/spritemap.svg#sprite-arrow-right-thin\"\/><\/svg><br \/>\n        <\/a>\n    <\/div>\n<p>The discovery dispute is the latest chapter in a copyright battle that began in June 2025, when <a href=\"https:\/\/mashable.com\/article\/disney-comcast-universal-suing-midjourney-for-plagarism\" target=\"_blank\" data-ga-click=\"1\" data-ga-label=\"$text\" data-ga-item=\"text-link\" data-ga-module=\"content_body\">Disney and Comcast&#8217;s Universal filed suit<\/a>, accusing Midjourney of enabling large-scale infringement of copyrighted characters. That original complaint described Midjourney as a &#8220;bottomless pit of plagiarism&#8221; that generated unauthorized recreations of characters, including Darth Vader and Elsa, as previously reported by this outlet. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mashable.com\/article\/warner-bros-discovery-lawsuit-midjourney\" target=\"_blank\" data-ga-click=\"1\" data-ga-label=\"$text\" data-ga-item=\"text-link\" data-ga-module=\"content_body\">Warner Bros. Discovery joined the fight<\/a> three months later, in September 2025, accusing Midjourney of &#8220;brazen theft&#8221; involving characters such as Superman, Batman, and Bugs Bunny, and seeking $150,000 per infringed work.<\/p>\n<section x-data=\"window.newsletter({ isDeal: false })\" x-init=\"init()\" aria-label=\"Newsletter Sign-Up\" class=\"relative invisible my-12 mx-auto w-full max-w-3xl md:my-16 ziff-component accent-cut-for-gradient-bg accent-cut-border-for-gradient-bg bg-gradient-fuchsia-secondary p-[2px]\">\n<p>\n            <span class=\"text-gradient-fuchsia-secondary\">Mashable Light Speed<\/span>\n        <\/p>\n<\/section>\n<p>More than a year into the litigation, Midjourney has countered with a &#8220;fair use&#8221; defense, arguing the studios engage in comparable AI practices internally. Per <em>Variety<\/em>, the company&#8217;s attorney, Bobby Ghajar, wrote that if the studios are &#8220;doing the very thing they seek to punish,&#8221; that evidence is central to Midjourney&#8217;s fair-use and &#8220;unclean hands&#8221; arguments. The company is seeking access to the studios&#8217; AI business plans, training datasets, model weights, and board presentations on AI.<\/p>\n<p>A magistrate judge ruled against Midjourney&#8217;s broader discovery request in mid-June 2026, limiting the studios&#8217; disclosure obligations to consumer-facing AI tools rather than internal systems. Midjourney has since asked Judge John Kronstadt to overturn that ruling. <\/p>\n<p>The studios&#8217; attorney, David Singer, has dismissed the effort as a &#8220;fishing expedition&#8221; meant to deflect from Midjourney&#8217;s own conduct, according to <em>Variety&#8217;s<\/em> reporting.<\/p>\n<section class=\"mx-auto max-w-7xl\">\n<div class=\"flex flex-wrap mt-8 w-full font-sans subtitle-2 editor-content\">\n<p>\n        <span class=\"mr-1.5 font-sans font-bold\">Topics<\/span><br \/>\n                    <a class=\"underline-link hover:no-underline text-secondary-300 mr-1.5\" href=\"https:\/\/mashable.com\/category\/artificial-intelligence\" aria-label=\"Navigate to the Artificial Intelligence tag\" data-ga-click=\"\" data-ga-label=\"$text\">Artificial Intelligence<\/a><br \/>\n                    <a class=\"underline-link hover:no-underline text-secondary-300 \" href=\"https:\/\/mashable.com\/category\/disney\" aria-label=\"Navigate to the Disney tag\" data-ga-click=\"\" data-ga-label=\"$text\">Disney<\/a>\n            <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Midjourney is attempting to turn the tables on the Hollywood studios suing it for copyright infringement, asking a federal judge to compel Disney, Universal, and Warner Bros. Discovery to disclose their internal use of artificial intelligence, according to a Variety report published this week. SEE ALSO: Jury tosses Musk OpenAI lawsuit, saves Sam Altman The&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":362,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/helios-i.mashable.com\/imagery\/articles\/056zqjr2bavSyxnMmr6aGD1\/hero-image.fill.size_1200x675.v1783259928.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-real-trending-viral-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}