Streaming giant Netflix Inc (NASDAQ:NFLX) is threatening TikTok parent company ByteDance with litigation after several videos, made using Seedance 2.0 artificial intelligence tools, surfaced on social media and included copyrighted characters.
Netflix has grown its library of intellectual property with original series like “Stranger Things,” “Squid Game” and “Bridgerton.” The company is now out to protect those series from being used to create AI videos.
The streaming giant sent a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance, telling the Chinese company to remove Netflix’s IP and restrict users from accessing it, according to Variety.
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Netflix is giving ByteDance three days to respond and strengthen its guardrails around its Seedance 2.0 artificial intelligence tools or face “immediate litigation.”
“Seedance acts as a high-speed piracy engine, generating mass quantities of unauthorized derivative works utilizing Netflix’s iconic characters, worlds, and scripted narratives,” Netflix director of litigation Mindy LeMoine said.
Netflix uses examples of Seedance 2.0, allowing users to apply the masquerade ball setting from “Bridgerton” and the “Stranger Things” finale setting to videos.
The letter also highlights videos created, like those featuring Elon Musk in the setting of “Squid Game.”
Netflix highlights “Stranger Things,” “KPop Demon Hunters,” “Squid Game” and “Bridgerton” among the infringed titles.
Netflix is not the only company targeting ByteDance and Seedance 2.0. Disney (NYSE:DIS), Paramount Skydance (NASDAQ:PSKY) and Warner Bros. Discovery (NASDAQ:WBD) have all accused ByteDance of infringing on various copyrighted works.
ByteDance said Monday that it would add guardrails around videos, but Warner Bros. and Netflix sent letters to the company Tuesday, which could indicate the moves from the TikTok parent are not enough.
“These characters are the lifeblood of the company,” Warner Bros. Studios executive VP of legal Wayne Smith said of ByteDance.
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AI video and photo-editing tools have made it easier than ever to create hypothetical matchups or intermix characters from various franchises (i.e., Darth Vader fighting Thanos and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fighting the Power Rangers).
