TikTok’s parent company ByteDance has agreed to restrict its artificial intelligence (AI) video tool SeaDance 2.0 following legal threats from Disney and complaints from other studios.
In a statement shared with MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, a ByteDance spokesperson said they respect intellectual property rights (IP) and have heard concerns about Seedance 2.0. “We are taking steps to strengthen our current safeguards to prevent unauthorized use of our intellectual property and likeness by our users.”
However, ByteDance did not provide details about the safety measures it plans to implement or what data it will use to train Seedance.
This follows the proliferation of Seedance 2.0 clips online. The tool can generate highly realistic videos from simple text prompts, from Tom Cruise fighting Brad Pitt to Will Smith fighting a red-eyed monster or a Friends character reimagined as an otter.
However, several Hollywood studios have expressed copyright concerns and accused ByteDance of copyright infringement. According to Reuters and the BBC, Disney sent a cease-and-desist letter on February 13, claiming that Seadance had been trained on a “piracy library” and accusing Disney of “effectively crushing” its intellectual property.
In addition, major U.S. studios allege that Seadance 2.0 has made large-scale misappropriation of U.S. copyrighted works and are demanding that Seadance 2.0 immediately cease producing infringing clips based on existing films and shows, Charles Rivkin, president and CEO of the Motion Picture Association, said in a statement.
“By launching a service that operates without meaningful protections against copyright infringement, ByteDance is ignoring established copyright laws that protect the rights of creators and support millions of jobs in the United States,” he said.
MPA represents major U.S. studios including Netflix, Paramount Pictures, Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios, Sony Pictures, Universal Studios, Walt Disney Studios, and Warner Bros. Discovery.
MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has asked Disney for a statement.
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In fact, Disney took similar action against Character.AI, sending it a cease-and-desist order requiring it to stop unauthorized use of the studio’s copyrighted characters.
Back in December, The Walt Disney Company and OpenAI signed an agreement that made Disney the first major content partner for Sora, OpenAI’s short-form generated video platform. Sora creates short, user-directed social videos drawn from over 200 Disney, Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars characters, including costumes, props, vehicles, and iconic environments, for fans to view and share.
Photo provided by: YouTube channel @Ruairi Robinson,X account@Grankin
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