In Legal Battle with Disney and Universal: Midjourney Demands Disclosure of AI Usage

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With the AI image generator, content can be created that features copyrighted characters like the Minions. In court, the startup now wants to know whether and how the studios themselves use AI.

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In the past year, Disney and Universal have filed lawsuits against Midjourney for copyright infringement. A few months later, Warner Bros. also filed a lawsuit for the same reasons. However, as reported by Techcrunch, the AI company is now striking back and trying to force the media conglomerates to disclose their own AI usage.

Midjourney Relies on the "Fair Use" Rule

In their lawsuit, Disney and Universal accuse Midjourney of generating images on a large scale that "obviously include and copy famous characters," including the Minions from Universal and characters from The Lion King by Disney. Before the lawsuit, both studios reportedly asked Midjourney to cease these copyright violations. However, since the AI startup allegedly made no changes, they felt compelled to take legal action.

Midjourney argues that training its AI models with copyrighted content falls under the "Fair Use" provision and is therefore permissible. Initial legal assessments, however, paint a less optimistic picture. Andres Guadamuz, a copyright lecturer at the University of Sussex, told New Scientist: "It's Disney, so Midjourney is f***ed, excuse my language. […] Media conglomerates are increasingly interested in copyright-infringing content. The AI models are getting better and now you can easily create any character you can imagine."

Studios Must Disclose Their AI Usage

The current dispute revolves around the documents that the media conglomerates must present in the evidence process. A judge has ruled that they only need to provide information about their own use of generative AI if it has led to "consumer-oriented" videos and images. Midjourney is currently trying to lift this restriction. The reasoning states that this would unfairly advantage the studios, as they could "pick only those documents they believe support their claims about market distortions, while Midjourney would be denied documents that would support its defense."

Midjourney argues that if the studios use AI models for internal purposes in storyboarding or brainstorming, it would demonstrate that it is industry standard to download copyrighted content without a license—even among film studios. Additionally, the company demands that all prompts used and the resulting outputs be disclosed. Lawyer David Singer explained, according to Techcrunch, that the goal of the two corporations is not to stop AI technology or shut down Midjourney's business. Disney and Universal merely want the AI startup to stop copying their films and TV shows and distributing AI-generated content without permission.