Midjourney demands studios disclose AI practices in copyright fight

The copyright dispute between Midjourney and Hollywood's major studios has escalated into a discovery battle over what constitutes fair use in AI training. Midjourney's legal team, led by attorney Bobby Ghajar, is betting that if it can demonstrate the studios use comparable AI practices internally—training on unlicensed data, developing proprietary models—the courts may view the copyright claims as hypocritical. This "unclean hands" defense strategy hinges on the argument that the studios themselves are "doing the very thing they seek to punish."

The discovery fight reveals a deeper tension in AI copyright litigation: the question of whether large institutions should be held to the same standards they impose on startups. The magistrate judge's mid-June 2026 ruling limiting disclosure to consumer-facing tools only suggests the courts are skeptical of broad internal-systems discovery at this stage. Midjourney's appeal to Judge John Kronstadt is a long shot, especially given the studios' characterization of the request as a "fishing expedition." However, the case underscores that AI training practices across the entertainment industry may be more uniform—and more legally ambiguous—than the public debate has acknowledged.