Six months ago, it was a cease-and-desist letter. Six months later, it's a memorandum of understanding. The standoff between ByteDance and the Motion Picture Association (MPA) over AI infringement has now reached a milestone. In a press release, the MPA announced it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with TikTok parent company ByteDance, establishing a joint framework to protect the intellectual property of member companies including Disney, Paramount, and Warner Bros. Discovery.
According to the press release, the MOU's scope extends beyond TikTok itself to cover the TikTok USDS joint venture, CapCut, Dreamina, and all of ByteDance's AI models. The MPA specifically named ByteDance's recently released Seedream 5.0 Pro and Seedance 2.5 models, saying they reflect "continued progress on IP protection" — a characterization from the MPA, not an independent technical assessment TIDEZINE can verify.
Rewind to this past February: the MPA sent ByteDance a cease-and-desist letter accusing its AI models of using copyrighted material without authorization. ByteDance responded at the time by pledging to strengthen safeguards against unauthorized use of intellectual property and likeness rights, and reports subsequently emerged that Seedance 2.0's global rollout had been temporarily paused. MPA CEO and Chairman Charles Rivkin said the association had engaged in "constructive dialogue" with ByteDance and noted that the Chinese company had implemented "meaningful safeguards" in its AI models — again, Rivkin's own characterization.
Worth noting alongside this is another front in Hollywood's current battle: the copyright lawsuit against Midjourney remains active in court, involving similar allegations of copyright infringement. Striking a deal on one front while still litigating on another shows that Hollywood's approach to generative AI isn't a single unified script — it's being handled case by case, depending on the party and where negotiations stand.
The details and timeline of the agreement described in this article are drawn from Engadget's reporting and the MPA's press release. As of publication, no further public details of the agreement's specific terms have been disclosed.
