AI-driven equity disruption was everywhere this past week, spreading like wildfire beyond software into insurance, commercial real estate, financials, shipping, wealth management, and likely many more industries in the coming trading sessions.

One industry in the crosshairs of AI disruption is Hollywood. Some of the publicly traded studios include The Walt Disney Company, Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount Global, Sony Group Corporation, Netflix, Lionsgate, and others.

On Friday, Axios reported that the Walt Disney Company sent a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance, alleging that the Chinese tech firm has been infringing on its films to develop Seedance 2.0 without compensation.

Disney's outside attorney, David Singer, wrote a letter to ByteDance global general counsel John Rogovin, accusing the AI company of "pre-packaging its Seedance service with a pirated library of Disney's copyrighted characters from Star Wars, Marvel, and other Disney franchises, as if Disney's coveted intellectual property were free public domain clip art."

"Over Disney's well-publicized objections, ByteDance is hijacking Disney's characters by reproducing, distributing, and creating derivative works featuring those characters. ByteDance's virtual smash-and-grab of Disney's IP is willful, pervasive, and totally unacceptable," Singer said.

He added, "We believe this is just the tip of the iceberg, which is shocking considering Seedance has only been available for a few days."

It’s not just ByteDance’s Seedance 2.0 that has spooked Hollywood studios.

A growing wave of video-generation models suggests that Hollywood’s moat is crumbling, and its control of the media game is nearing its end.

"Authorities should use every legal tool at their disposal to stop this wholesale theft," the Human Artistry Campaign - a coalition that includes dozens of creative groups such as SAG-AFTRA and the Directors Guild of America - said in a statement on Friday.

Seedance 2.0 model ...

Hollywood is living on borrowed time. The next big AI disruption trade could be studios.