ByteDance AI video tool accused by Disney of copyright ‘smash and grab’

ByteDance’s latest video generation model Seedance 2.0 has blown people away for its ability to rapidly generate lifelike videos, but is also receiving blowback globally for alleged intellectual property (IP) violations.

The controversy focuses on TikTok-owner ByteDance’s alleged use of copyrighted content to train its artificial intelligence model, as videos of Hollywood celebrities, Disney characters and comic book heroes generated by Seedance have flooded the web in recent days.

On Saturday, Disney sent a cease-and-desist letter accusing ByteDance of a “virtual smash-and-grab of Disney’s IP”, as its new model can purportedly generate videos of Disney-owned characters from the Marvel and Star Wars universes, a source told the South China Morning Post.

The legal action came after criticism of the new model from major Hollywood bodies, with actors’ union SAG-AFTRA accusing the model of “blatant infringement” and the Motion Picture Association’s CEO Charles Rivkin calling for ByteDance to “immediately cease its infringing activity”. The union, the association and ByteDance did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Disney sent a similar cease and desist letter to Google in December, which prompted the US tech giant to restrict the generation of Disney-owned characters in its Nano Banana and Gemini AI services.

Foreign governments have also raised concerns. On Friday, Japan’s cabinet office launched an investigation into ByteDance over potential copyright violations after AI-generated videos featuring well-known Japanese manga and anime characters, including Detective Conan and Ultraman, proliferated on social media.

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