Hollywood cuts first-ever AI copyright deal with…

The Motion Picture Association (MPA) and TikTok parent company ByteDance have reached a historic agreement to establish strict guardrails on AI video and image generation tools. This deal follows months of negotiations aimed at protecting Hollywood’s intellectual property from unauthorized use within ByteDance’s platforms, including Seedance, Seedream, CapCut, and Dreamina.

What happened

The agreement follows a period of intense conflict between Hollywood studios and ByteDance. In February 2024, the MPA issued a formal cease-and-desist letter to the tech giant, citing concerns that its AI tools were hijacking iconic characters and celebrity faces without permission. Specifically, viral videos generated by Seedance 2.0 in China depicted deepfake versions of Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt engaged in a fight, raising alarms regarding the unauthorized use of celebrity likenesses.

Beyond celebrity deepfakes, Disney accused ByteDance of pre-packaging the Seedance tool with a pirated library of copyrighted content. The studio alleged that the AI generator was reproducing, distributing, and creating derivative works featuring characters from the "Star Wars" and Marvel franchises, such as Spider-Man and Darth Vader, essentially treating them as public-domain clip art. In response to the studios' pushback, ByteDance committed to strengthening its safeguards to prevent the unauthorized use of intellectual property and likeness. The newly announced deal formalizes these protections, with MPA Chief Charles Rivkin emphasizing that copyright remains a cornerstone of the film and television industry. ByteDance General Counsel John Rogovin stated that the company respects intellectual property rights and believes that responsible AI innovation must coexist with meaningful protections for rights holders.