The copyright game in the film industry escalates: Midjourney demands that Hollywood studios “prove their innocence.” The copyright tug-of-war between Hollywood studios and generative AI is evolving into a mutually scrutinizing “evidence disclosure” contest.

The copyright game in the film industry escalates: Midjourney demands that Hollywood studios “prove their innocence.” The copyright tug-of-war between Hollywood studios and generative AI is evolving into a mutually scrutinizing “evidence disclosure” contest. Midjourney, a defendant in a copyright lawsuit filed against it by Disney, Universal Pictures and Warner Bros., has taken a counter-attack, demanding that the studio disclose specific details about the use of AI technology in its internal operations. The core of this legal dispute lies in the scope of discovery. Previously, courts ruled that studios only need to provide final "consumer-facing" documentation related to videos and images. However, Midjourney made it clear that it did not accept this restriction and accused the definition of being selective and intended to deprive it of the right to obtain favorable evidence for its defense. Midjourney believes the withheld documents could shed light on whether studios are engaging in the same behavior alleged in the indictment "behind the scenes" - the unauthorized use of copyrighted content to train AI models. Midjourney bluntly stated in the latest court filing that if studios are developing image generation models for in-house creation, then these practices themselves prove that AI has become an "industry practice" in the film and television industry processes. With this argument, Midjourney sought to weaken its claims of "infringement" by showing the court that the studio itself was relying on a similar technological path. In addition, Midjourney also applied to require the studio to fully disclose all prompts used and the generated results to comprehensively evaluate its current use of AI in creative conception and storyboard design. Attorney David Singer, representing the Hollywood studio, fired back at Midjourney's move. He denounced this as an improper act of "casting a net to search for evidence", aiming to obtain the studio's internal core information indiscriminately. Singer said the studio's request is not to hinder technological progress, but to stop Midjourney's unauthorized use and dissemination of its classic film and television content and character copyrights. As the case enters deep waters, this battle over the boundaries of AI training data and copyright is not only about the interests of the two parties, but will also become an important milestone in defining the future AI usage norms and legal responsibilities in the film and television industry. Currently, the confrontation between the two sides over the scope of evidence disclosure continues. via AI News (author: AI Base)