The buzzword of the day is AI. Large Language Models have become the cutting edge of technology with their ability to take in massive amounts of data and then spit out “new” content based on a simple prompt from a user. Unfortunately for the owners of copyrights, some of that “new” material involves the use of popular characters, and the owners of those characters, including Netflix and the company it’s working to purchase, Warner Bros., are threatening legal action.
It’s not AI companies in general, but a particular platform that has become the specific target of media companies at this moment. ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, recently released Seedance 2.0, a short-form video platform, and users have applied the tech to various famous characters. Some of those characters are owned by Warner Bros., and the studio has sent ByteDance’s Global General Counsel John Rogovin (who formerly worked for WB) a cease and desist letter which reads (via Deadline) in part…
Given your history with Warner Bros., you understand the importance and value of Warner Bros. Discovery’s copyrighted works, including the famous copyrighted characters like Superman and Batman that you spent much of your career protecting.
You’ve likely seen the results of these AI videos going viral on TikTok and other social media platforms. They frequently take the form of battles between popular characters, Superman vs. Wolverine or Ethan Hunt vs. John Wick, with all the characters looking not just like the characters, but like the actors who play them in the movies. Likeness rights have been an issue with AI in the past.
A threat of legal action from an industry giant like Warner Bros. is certainly enough that ByteDance is surely taking notice, but things are only getting more complicated for the AI firm as the company that’s likely to buy Warner Bros., Netflix, as issued its own cerase and desist, as it accuses Seedance of violating multiple copyrights including Bridgerton, Stranger Things, Squid Game and Kpop Demon Hunters.
Netflix’s order, according to Deadline, is a bit more forceful than the one from Warner Bros. It gives Byte Dance three days to respond by removing all infringing content and implementing safeguards to prevent future infringement.
Other studios like Paramount and Disney have also joined in Netflix's cease and desist motion. It makes for strange bedfellows, considering Paramount and Netflix are currently both looking to buy Warner Bros.
Disney recently inked a deal with OpenAI that will give its AI video platform access to Disney characters, but because Disney has made that deal, it needs to make sure that competing platforms don’t continue to use the same characters. Disney's deal is specifically for animated characters and does not give rights to any voices or live-action character designs.
Perhaps the result of this legal battle will be the protected characters disappearing, or perhaps ByteDance will look to make deals as Disney has done and simply pay for the rights to use the characters. What does seem certain is that the technology and the content that technology uses still have a lot left to figure out.
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