Aug 18: The Motion Picture Association and ByteDance have reached an agreement to strengthen copyright protections in ByteDance’s AI video and image-generation tools, Seedance and Seedream.
The agreement follows legal action by Hollywood studios over ByteDance’s AI tools. In February, the MPA sent a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance, alleging that Seedance 2.0 was trained on copyrighted material and could generate unauthorised videos featuring characters such as “SpongeBob SquarePants” and visuals replicating a scene from “Stranger Things.”
“ByteDance is engaged in pervasive and widespread infringement of our members’ valuable intellectual property that it must stop immediately,” MPA Global General Counsel Karyn Temple wrote in a February 20 letter to ByteDance’s Global General Counsel John Rogovin.
The MPA said it has held constructive discussions with ByteDance over the last several months to strengthen safeguards around Seedance and Seedream. The association has not disclosed the specific guardrails agreed upon.
“Today’s agreement illustrates our belief that copyright is a cornerstone of the film and television industry and reinforces our commitment to protect creative content,” said MPA Chairman and CEO Charles Rivkin.
ByteDance has since released Seedream 5.0 Pro and Seedance 2.5, which the company and MPA said reflect improved intellectual-property protections.
“ByteDance respects the intellectual property rights that underpin creative industries around the world, and we believe responsible innovation in AI goes hand in hand with meaningful protections for rightsholders,” said Rogovin.
The agreement marks the MPA’s first agreement with an AI company as Hollywood studios and technology companies continue to address copyright concerns around generative AI.