Disney Sends Cease-and-Desist to ByteDance Over AI Video Generator

Disney has issued a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance, alleging unauthorized use of Disney characters to train and power Seedance 2.0, ByteDance's AI video generator. Disney claims ByteDance pre-packaged Seedance with a pirated library of copyrighted characters from Star Wars and Marvel, treating them as public-domain assets. The letter asserts Seedance reproduces, distributes, and creates derivative works featuring Spider-Man, Darth Vader, and other characters. ByteDance stated it will enhance safeguards on Seedance 2.0 to prevent unauthorized use of copyrighted characters and celebrity likenesses. The company did not immediately respond to Reuters. Paramount Skydance has also sent a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance for IP infringement. Seedance 2.0, released last week, has gone viral in China. Disney has previously targeted Character.AI and recently licensed characters to OpenAI for its Sora generator.