Netflix issue cease and desist over 'AI Stranger Things' Conformity Gate videos

Netflix have sent a blistering statement to TikTok’s parent company ByteDance over AI generated videos of several of their properties such as Stranger Things, KPop Demon Hunters, and Squid Games.

Netflix sent the company a cease-and-desist legal notice informing them that if ByteDance doesn’t meet their demands, they will be looking to take even further legal action.

Amongst the videos that the streamer were pointing to as proof of ByteDance’s inaction were AI generated versions of the Stranger Things Conformity Gate fan theory.

This fan theory suggested that Stranger Things wasn’t over and a secret finale episode was set to be released showing that much of the final season was a vision.

Netflix’s blistering statement to ByteDance with three-day deadline

Netflix have said they ‘will not stand by and watch ByteDance treat [their] valued IP as free, public domain clip art’.

In a cease-and-desist letter acquired by Deadline, Netflix pointed to ByteDance’s ‘Seedance’ AI generation tool which they stated is ‘being used to generate unauthorized derivative works’.

The streamer specifically named Stranger Things, Bridgerton, Squid Game, and KPop Demon Hunters.

It goes on to add: “Netflix has never authorized ByteDance to use our content to generate these images or videos. ByteDance’s activities are willful, and constitute direct and secondary copyright infringement.

“The use of copyrighted works to create a competing commercial product, especially one that regurgitates the original, is not protected by fair use.”

They finally laid down their demands, stating that to ‘avoid immediate litigation’ ByteDance has three days to ‘Cease Generative Output, Remove Infringing Content, Identify All Infringements, and Revoke Third-Party Access’.

AI videos of Stranger Things ‘Conformity Gate’ have been going viral

Under each of the major shows named Netflix mentioned exactly how ByteDance is being used to infringe on their copyright, saying for Stranger Things: “High-fidelity reboots of the series finale, which feature detailed reproductions of the iconic cast as well as the monsters from the series, including Demogorgons and the Mindflayer.”

Much of this theory, and subsequent attempts to use AI to create something ‘better’, circles back to the idea that many fans were less than happy with the Stranger Things finale.

Conformity Gate hinged on the idea that the show wasn’t ‘really’ over and Netflix was actually set to release a secret ninth episode of the final season.

Various AI videos have been created using Seedance to portray a version of the finale devoid of many of the issues fans had with, displaying the Demogorgons being part of the final battle.

Squid Game’s use has been particularly bizarre, with the letter saying: “Seedance has generated recreations of the “Red Light, Green Light” sets and the iconic Young-hee doll.

“These include unauthorized crossovers, such as inserting real-world figures like Elon Musk into the Squid Game environment.” As if the characters in Squid Game weren’t already going through enough.