Netflix has sent a formal cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, over its new AI video generation tool, Seedance 2.0, accusing it of being a "high-speed piracy engine" that unlawfully reproduces the streaming giant’s copyrighted content. The letter, dated Tuesday, was sent by Mindy LeMoine, Netflix’s Director of Litigation, and outlines extensive concerns about how the AI model is being used to generate videos that closely mimic characters, scenes, and visual styles from Netflix’s most popular shows and films. The letter highlights specific examples of infringement, including unauthorized AI-generated clips featuring characters from "Stranger Things," "Bridgerton," "Squid Game," and the animated film "KPop Demon Hunters." In one case, Seedance produced high-fidelity recreations of the "Stranger Things" finale, complete with detailed depictions of the main cast and iconic creatures like the Demogorgon and the Mindflayer. Another example involved a video that reimagined the "Red Light, Green Light" game set from "Squid Game" with real-world figures like Elon Musk inserted into the scene. Netflix also points to ByteDance’s own social media promotion of such content, including the use of hashtags like #Bridgerton on official accounts such as @BytePlusGlobal, which the company argues shows active encouragement of infringing use. The letter stresses that the unauthorized use of copyrighted material to create competing commercial products—especially those that closely replicate original works—is not protected under fair use doctrine. Netflix demands that ByteDance take immediate action, including halting all AI-generated content that resembles its intellectual property, removing all infringing material from its platforms, scrubbing Netflix’s content from Seedance’s training datasets, and providing a full accounting of all instances where its IP has been used. The company also wants ByteDance to revoke access for third-party partners and API users who are generating unauthorized content. Netflix made clear it will not tolerate what it sees as the exploitation of its creative work as if it were public domain. “We will not stand by and watch ByteDance treat our valued IP as free, public domain clip art,” the letter states. This is not an isolated issue. Disney and Paramount Skydance have also sent similar cease-and-desist letters to ByteDance, with Disney accusing Seedance of using a “pirated library” of its Star Wars, Marvel, and other franchise content. Disney’s concerns are heightened by its recent deal with OpenAI to license characters for use in Sora, Apple’s AI video tool, underscoring the growing tension between major media companies and AI developers over the use of copyrighted material in training data. ByteDance responded by saying it respects intellectual property rights and is strengthening safeguards to prevent unauthorized use of likenesses and IP. However, the legal and public relations fallout continues to grow as AI tools become more capable of mimicking real-world creative works at scale.