A new generative AI tool faces intense pushback from the MPA, SAG-AFTRA, and the Japanese government over unauthorized use of iconic characters.
The release of ByteDance’s latest artificial intelligence tool, Seedance 2.0, has ignited a massive copyright dispute with major Hollywood studios. Unveiled on February 12, the text-to-video platform quickly went viral for its ability to produce hyper-realistic content, but it immediately drew the ire of entertainment executives for generating unauthorized clips of established franchises.
Videos showing Marvel’s Spider-Man brawling with Captain America, and Star Wars figures Anakin Skywalker and Rey fighting with lightsabers, have circulated widely online. This prompted The Walt Disney Company to issue a cease-and-desist letter on Friday, accusing ByteDance of conducting a “virtual smash-and-grab” using a “pirated library” of proprietary characters.
ByteDance Commits to Safeguards
Facing a potential legal tsunami, ByteDance responded on Monday. Speaking to the BBC, the Chinese developer claimed to take infringement claims seriously and promised to adjust the platform’s parameters.
“We respect intellectual property rights and we have heard the concerns regarding Seedance 2.0,” the statement read, adding that the company is “taking steps to strengthen current safeguards.” ByteDance declined to specify these protective measures or clarify the origins of Seedance’s training data, though it noted that it had previously suspended the upload feature for images of real people.
A Broader Legal War
Disney’s aggressive stance is backed by the wider industry. The Motion Picture Association (MPA)—whose members include Paramount, Netflix, and Warner Bros Discovery—has demanded that ByteDance immediately halt the infringement. The actors’ guild, SAG-AFTRA, echoed these sentiments, condemning the platform’s output as “blatant infringement.”
Furthermore, ByteDance’s legal exposure is expanding internationally. The Japanese government has formally launched an investigation into the firm regarding the unauthorized generation of protected anime IP.
The conflict is part of a broader, ongoing war over AI training data. Disney and NBCUniversal are already pursuing a lawsuit against Midjourney for similar allegations, and Disney has successfully pressured Google to implement strict guardrails on its own generative AI models.
SOURCES: BBC, The Walt Disney Company, Japanese Government Ministries, MPA, SAG-AFTRA.
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