Netflix Sends TikTok Owner Cease & Desist Over Kpop Demon Hunters, Stranger Things & More Copyright Infringement

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TikTok quickly responded after videos featuring well-known characters and franchises—created using the Seedance 2.0 platform—started appearing on the app.

On February 17th, Netflix took action against the AI company Bytedance, which created the app Seedance. They sent a legal notice demanding the app stop its activities, joining Disney, Warner Bros., and Paramount in doing so. The Motion Picture Association (MPA) and the actors’ union SAG-AFTRA have also criticized Seedance, calling it a clear violation of copyright laws. Netflix’s legal chief, Mindy LeMoine, specifically mentioned that the app illegally uses content from popular shows like Stranger Things, KPop Demon Hunters, Bridgerton, and Squid Game.

In the letter (see full document here), LeMoine stated:

Netflix confirms it did not give ByteDance permission to use its shows and movies to create these images or videos. ByteDance is intentionally violating copyright law, both directly and by encouraging others to do so. Simply using copyrighted material to build a competing product – especially one that closely copies the original – isn’t allowed under fair use rules.

Major film and TV companies are increasingly taking legal action against AI-generated content and the platforms that produce it. Though individual artists have voiced concerns about plagiarism for some time, larger studios have been slower to respond, often choosing to integrate AI into their own operations first.

© Netflix / Courtesy Everett Collection

The increasing use of AI was a major reason behind the 2023 and 2024 strikes by the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA). Studios wanted to use AI to work faster and reduce costs, which meant potentially replacing human writers and actors. Interestingly, in June 2025, Disney and Universal began to oppose AI image generators like Midjourney – this was the first instance of major Hollywood studios actively resisting this type of technology.

Now, Netflix has made the following demands: “To avoid immediate litigation…“

Stop creating content that looks like Netflix properties. Immediately put technical measures in place to prevent Seedance from generating anything that copies Netflix’s characters, show titles, or fictional worlds.

Take down any Netflix content that was obtained illegally from training datasets. Also, remove any videos created by Seedance that include Netflix material from all platforms owned by ByteDance.

Please list every instance where Seedance created content using prompts that involved Netflix’s copyrighted material.

Stop allowing any companies or users who are using Seedance to create unofficial Netflix content. Remove their access immediately.

Following Disney and Paramount’s actions, ByteDance recently told Deadline they are improving their systems to stop users from illegally using copyrighted material and people’s images. Although ByteDance hasn’t officially responded to Netflix’s demand to stop certain activity, they are expected to act quickly because Netflix has given them only three days to do so.

What Does This Mean For AI-Generated Content Moving Forward?

A significant change in AI content creation just happened: Disney made a large agreement with OpenAI, giving the company permission to use Disney’s copyrighted material in its AI tools. It remains to be seen how much copyrighted content users will ultimately be able to incorporate into the content they generate with AI.

Even though public domain works are freely usable, app developers might start using systems similar to YouTube’s copyright strike process. We expect to learn more this week about the dispute between Netflix and ByteDance.

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2026-02-18 23:32