ByteDance pledges to prevent unauthorised IP use on AI video tool
Disney has sent a cease-and-desist letter accusing the Chinese company of using its characters to train and power the tool without permission
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[BEIJING] ByteDance will take steps to prevent the unauthorised use of intellectual property on its artificial intelligence (AI) video generator Seedance 2.0, the Chinese tech company said on Monday (Feb 16), following threats of legal action from US studios such as Disney.
Videos generated by Seedance 2.0, which was released last week, have gone viral in China – including one of Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt in a fight.
The AI model has been compared to DeepSeek and praised for its ability to produce cinematic storylines with just a few prompts.
Disney sent a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance accusing the Chinese company of using its characters to train and power Seedance 2.0 without permission, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters late on Sunday.
The studio said ByteDance had pre-packaged Seedance with a pirated library of copyrighted characters from franchises including Star Wars and Marvel, portraying them as if they were public domain clip art, they said.
The letter alleged the company was reproducing, distributing and creating derivative works featuring Spider-Man, Darth Vader and other characters, the source added.
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“We are taking steps to strengthen current safeguards as we work to prevent the unauthorised use of intellectual property and likeness by users,” ByteDance said.
It did not elaborate on the measures it was taking.
Online news outlet Axios was the first to report on Disney’s move.
Paramount Skydance has also sent a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance, accusing the Chinese company of engaging in “blatant infringement” of its intellectual property, Variety reported in the weekend.
Disney has taken similar actions against Character.AI, demanding that the startup immediately stop the unauthorised use of its copyrighted characters.
In December, the company signed a licensing deal with OpenAI, letting it use characters from Star Wars, Pixar and Marvel franchises in its Sora video generator. REUTERS
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