Netflix threatens TikTok parent company with 'immediate' legal action over 'piracy engine' it accuses of creating
The Netflix logo in the platform's mobile application, installed on a smartphone, PHOTO: Shutterstock
Netflix threatened TikTok parent ByteDance with “immediate legal action” on Tuesday, joining three other Hollywood studios in suing the Chinese firm for allegedly facilitating copyright infringement through its artificial intelligence (AI) service Seedance 2.0, Variety magazine reported.
Lawyers for the streaming giant sent ByteDance a formal notice demanding that the Chinese company remove intellectual property owned by Netflix from the datasets used to train the AI tool and institute safeguards to prevent further infringements.
“Seedance operates as a high-speed piracy engine, generating massive amounts of unauthorized derivative works that use Netflix's iconic characters, universes and scripted narratives,” Mindy LeMoine, director of litigation at the US streaming company, noted in the notice.
“Netflix will not stand by and watch ByteDance treat our valuable intellectual property as free public domain images,” she stressed.
ByteDance was given three days to respond. Numerous examples of videos and short videos that can be generated with Seedance 2.0 have appeared on social media.
Netflix isn't the only one worried about ByteDance's new AI tool
The move follows similar moves by Disney, Paramount and Warner Bros, each accusing the Chinese company of stealing their most valuable intellectual property. Netflix has accused ByteDance of facilitating copyright infringement on “Stranger Things,” “KPop Demon Hunters,” “Squid Game,” and “Bridgerton.”
In the case of “Bridgerton,” the letter claims videos are circulating on social media showing unauthorized depictions of Season 4 costumes in a masquerade ball setting. “These materials reproduce specific, narratively essential costumes, such as Sophie Baek's 'Lady in Silver' dress,” LeMoine wrote.
“ByteDance promoted this very content using the hashtag #Bridgerton through its own official social media channels, such as @BytePlusGlobal,” the Netflix director also accused.
The US company also mentioned videos circulating of the “Stranger Things” series finale, “which include detailed reproductions of the iconic cast as well as monsters from the series, including Demogorgons and Mindflayers.”
Reaction from TikTok's parent company
In response to the controversy caused in Hollywood, ByteDance had said as early as Monday that it would impose additional protection mechanisms to prevent unauthorized uses of copyright and actors' image by Seedance users.
But those assurances weren't enough for Warner Bros or Netflix, both of which sent letters to the Chinese company on Tuesday.
But Netflix's letter was the first to explicitly threaten legal action. The document also attempted to anticipate a possible “fair use” defense, arguing that “the use of copyrighted works to create a competing commercial product, especially one that substantially reproduces the original, is not protected by the fair use principle.”
Variety magazine notes that Seedance 2.0 appears to mark a significant advance over previous AI video generators, combining image and sound relatively smoothly based on just a few user instructions.
