On March 14, 2024, ByteDance, the Chinese tech company behind TikTok, launched its latest AI video generation tool, Seedance 2.0. The release quickly sparked significant backlash from The Walt Disney Company, which issued a cease and desist letter the following day. Disney accused ByteDance of infringing on its intellectual property by using its characters and works to train the AI model.
In the cease and desist letter, Disney’s attorney, David Singer, described the situation as a “virtual smash-and-grab” of Disney’s intellectual property. He stated, “Over Disney’s well-publicized objections, ByteDance is hijacking Disney’s characters by reproducing, distributing, and creating derivative works featuring those characters.” Singer characterized the infringement as willful and pervasive, indicating that Disney views this as a serious violation of its rights.
The concerns extend beyond Disney. The Motion Picture Association (MPA), which represents major U.S. studios such as Netflix, Paramount Pictures, and Warner Bros. Discovery, also condemned Seedance 2.0 for its alleged unauthorized use of copyrighted works. MPA Chairman and CEO Charles Rivkin emphasized that ByteDance’s actions disregard established copyright laws and pose a threat to millions of jobs in the creative sector. He called for ByteDance to “immediately cease its infringing activity.”
On March 15, the Human Artistry Campaign, which includes various creative organizations like SAG-AFTRA and the Directors Guild of America, echoed these sentiments. The campaign urged authorities to utilize every legal avenue available to combat what they termed “wholesale theft” of American creators’ works. According to campaign representatives, “The theft of the works of America’s creators by foreign bad actors is a threat to our nation’s creators and our global leadership in creativity.”
Seedance 2.0 allows users to generate realistic video clips from simple text prompts, creating content that has rapidly gone viral on social media. Examples include imagined scenarios featuring well-known figures such as Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt engaged in a fistfight, along with other bizarre creations like Will Smith battling a spaghetti monster. The tool has also produced scenes inspired by popular television shows like “Friends” and “Seinfeld,” as well as film franchises such as “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Avengers.”
In response to the backlash, ByteDance announced it has suspended the ability for users to upload images of real people to Seedance 2.0. The company stated that it “respects intellectual property rights and copyright protections” and takes any potential infringement seriously. ByteDance further clarified that the content generated was part of a limited pre-launch testing phase.
The company has pledged to implement “robust policies, monitoring mechanisms, and processes” to ensure compliance with local regulations and address any risks associated with the service. This legal confrontation highlights ongoing tensions between innovative technology and established intellectual property rights, raising important questions about the future of AI-generated content and its regulation within the creative industry.
