A fresh dispute has emerged in the AI industry after a leading Chinese technology company faced legal pressure from major US film studios. ByteDance said on Monday that it will strengthen measures to prevent the unauthorised use of intellectual property on its AI video generator Seedance 2.0. The statement came after threats of legal action from US studios, including Disney.
Seedance 2.0, launched last week, quickly gained attention in China for generating cinematic videos from simple prompts. Some viral clips showed actors like Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt in a fight scene. The AI model has been compared to DeepSeek and has received praise for creating detailed storylines with minimal input. However, its rapid popularity also drew scrutiny over how copyrighted material may have been used.
According to a news agency, Disney sent a cease and desist letter to ByteDance, alleging that the company used Disney characters without permission to train and power Seedance 2.0. A source familiar with the matter said the letter accused ByteDance of including a pirated library of copyrighted characters from franchises such as Star Wars and Marvel, presenting them as if they were public domain clip art. The letter further claimed that Seedance was reproducing, distributing and creating derivative works featuring Spider Man, Darth Vader and other characters. In response, ByteDance said, “We are taking steps to strengthen current safeguards as we work to prevent the unauthorized use of intellectual property and likeness by users,” but did not provide details about the specific measures.
Another US studio, Paramount Skydance, has also reportedly sent a cease and desist letter, accusing ByteDance of “blatant infringement” of its intellectual property. Disney has taken similar action against Character.AI over unauthorised use of its characters. In December, Disney signed a licensing agreement with OpenAI, allowing the startup to use characters from Star Wars, Pixar and Marvel in its Sora video generator.
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