Seedance, an AI video platform from the makers of TikTok, has caused a stir. Disney sent a lawyer. Paramount wrote a stern letter.
The latest generative AI drama exploded last week when a clip of Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise brawling provided useful free advertising for Seadance 2.0, an AI video generator developed by Chinese company ByteDance. (They are famous on TikTok.)
After Pit Cruise’s video stirred a mix of anger, depression, and fascination among internet denizens, the corporate beasts began to wake up.
Disney first called in its lawyers on February 13, just two days after SeaDance 2.0 launched, noting that there were a number of clips featuring characters from its films, including Marvel superheroes and familiar faces from Star Wars.
Disney’s lawyers wrote in the cease-and-desist letter that ByteDance’s “effective destruction and usurpation of Disney’s IP is intentional.” [sic]It’s pervasive and unacceptable. ”
Paramount Skydance was not far behind. The company quickly realized that the property was under its ownership. Star Trek, Mission: Impossible etc. – was also featured in the Seedance 2.0 video clip.
This prompted Paramount President Gabriel Miller to write a cease and desist letter stating that Seadance “contains vivid depictions of Paramount’s famous and iconic franchises and characters that are protected by copyright, trademark, and unfair competition laws (among other things).”
ByteDance has since responded to these angry letters, telling the BBC today (February 16) that it “respects intellectual property rights and hears your concerns about Seedance 2.0.”
The company added that it was “taking steps to strengthen our current safeguards to prevent unauthorized use of our intellectual property and likeness by our users.”
If all of this sounds strangely familiar, that’s because it’s exactly the same scenario that played out last October, when OpenAI announced Sora 2.0, its own AI video generator.
Within days, social media channels were filled with copyright-infringing videos of characters like Pikachu, Nintendo’s Mario, and SpongeBob SquarePants doing and having terrible things done to them.
Scorching letters and legal threats followed, and OpenAI promised to put guardrails in place to prevent its machines from spewing out footage that would steal IP.
In other words, two multibillion-dollar companies that employ some of the smartest computer scientists on the planet never expected that their platform, which turns a few words into videos, would be used to create potentially infringing images.
They weren’t at the point where they considered whether their “training data” contained copyrighted characters that could get them into legal trouble.
We also did not beta test the software with a small group of users to see what would appear if a suspicious or IP-disabling prompt was entered.
Alternatively, OpenAI and ByteDance have released these platforms know There will be many different types of videos, but the initial spike in viral clips, headlines, and even legal threats are all marketing that money can’t buy. No, that’s not what’s happening here. That would be too cynical.
Despite the strong language about theft and extortion, Hollywood companies aren’t particularly opposed to generative AI either.
Months after Disney banded together to sue another AI company, Midjourney, Disney struck a deal with OpenAI that will allow Mouse House characters to appear in Sora 2.0, and Disney+ will finally get a widget that allows subscribers to generate AI clips featuring Disney’s non-human celebrities.
The plagiarism machine is morally, legally, and environmentally terrible and must be stopped. Unless you have a profitable trade, in which case it’s fine.
We will keep you updated on the last few months of mass entertainment.
