Chinese tech giant ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, announced it will strengthen protections for its viral AI video tool SeaDance 2.0 after receiving a cease-and-desist letter from Disney over alleged copyright infringement.
Released last week, Seedance 2.0 allows users to create highly realistic short videos from simple text prompts.
Since its release, social media has been flooded with clips depicting famous characters and actors, including Marvel superheroes, Star Wars figures, and Hollywood stars, in fictional battle scenes.
Disney accused ByteDance of effectively pre-packaging a “pirated library” of intellectual property into the tool, including characters from Marvel, Star Wars and other franchises.
In a legal notice, Disney reportedly described the alleged infringement as a “de facto usurpation” of its intellectual property.
In a statement to international media, ByteDance said it “respects intellectual property rights” and “hears concerns about SeaDance 2.0.”
“We are taking steps to strengthen our current safeguards to prevent unauthorized use of our intellectual property and likeness by our users,” a spokesperson said without providing further details.
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPA), which represents major studios including Disney, Netflix, Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount, also called on the company to “immediately cease” what it called mass infringement.
Actor union SAG-AFTRA has labeled the tool’s output as “clearly infringing.”
The dispute highlights growing tensions between generative AI developers and the global entertainment industry as studios seek to enter into commercial AI partnerships while protecting valuable franchises.
Notably, Disney signed a reported US$1 billion investment and licensing agreement with OpenAI last year, granting limited use of selected characters on the company’s Sora video generation platform.
ByteDance has not disclosed what data was used to train Seedance 2.0.
