Video of Brad Pitt created with SeaDance. A fight scene between Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise generated using SeaDance by Irish film director Ruairí Robinson. It recorded 1.9 million views on X (formerly Twitter). [X Capture. Redistribution and DB prohibited]

The Hollywood film industry, which had strongly resisted the proliferation of AI video generation models, has signed a copyright protection agreement with an AI company for the first time in history.

The Motion Picture Association (MPA) and ByteDance announced on the 17th (local time) that they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to implement robust safety measures for AI video and image models.

This agreement marks the first copyright protection measure the MPA has signed with an AI company, coming six months after tensions flared between the Hollywood film industry and ByteDance over the video generation model 'SeaDance'.

While both sides did not disclose the specific details of the safety measures outlined in the MOU, it is believed to include provisions for protecting the intellectual property rights of major video works, such as films and dramas.

In fact, both parties noted that the latest versions, the video model 'SeaDance 2.5' and the image model 'SeaDream 5.0 Pro,' show progress in the field of intellectual property protection.

Charles Rivkin, Chairman and CEO of the MPA, explained, "The agreement signed today demonstrates our conviction that copyright is the cornerstone of the film and TV industry, while reaffirming our commitment to protecting creative content. Over the past few months, we have engaged in constructive discussions with ByteDance to establish meaningful safeguards for SeaDance and SeaDream, and this MOU is intended to solidify those efforts."

John Rogovin, General Counsel at ByteDance, responded, "ByteDance respects the intellectual property rights that underpin the global creative industry. We believe that responsible innovation in the field of AI must go hand-in-hand with meaningful protection for rights holders."

SeaDance, unveiled in February by TikTok developer ByteDance, became the center of controversy as it could instantly create videos appearing as if they were scenes from movies featuring actual Hollywood actors, using only short text prompts.

Irish director Ruairí Robinson also gained worldwide attention by producing a video of Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt fighting on the rooftop of an abandoned building using just two lines of prompts.

At the time, the Hollywood film industry issued a statement of opposition, pointing out that such AI video and image generation models had unauthorizedly replicated major characters and visual effects from properties such as Disney’s 'Star Wars', 'Marvel' characters, and the animation 'SpongeBob SquarePants'.