ByteDance, the parent company behind TikTok, has said it will strengthen safeguards to prevent the unauthorised use of intellectual property (IP) in its new artificial intelligence (AI) video generator, following legal threats from major United States film studios including Disney.
The Chinese technology group recently released its AI model, Seedance 2.0. The tool quickly gained attention online in China, where user-generated clips – including a widely shared video depicting actors Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt in a fight – circulated on social media. The system has been compared to DeepSeek for its performance and has drawn praise from some users for its ability to generate cinematic-style narratives from short prompts.
According to a recent report by Axios, Disney sent a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance alleging that the company had used copyrighted characters to train and power Seedance 2.0 without authorisation. The letter reportedly accused ByteDance of packaging the tool with a pirated library of characters from franchises including Star Wars and Marvel, presenting them as though they were public-domain material.
The complaint further alleged that Seedance 2.0 was reproducing and distributing derivative works featuring characters such as Spider-Man and Darth Vader. According to a recent report by Reuters, ByteDance said in a statement that it was “taking steps to strengthen current safeguards” to prevent users from generating unauthorised content involving protected intellectual property and likenesses, but did not provide details of the measures under consideration.
Other studios have also taken action. According to a recent report by Variety, Paramount Skydance has sent a similar cease-and-desist letter accusing ByteDance of infringing its intellectual property. Disney has previously pursued comparable claims against Character.AI over the alleged unauthorised use of its characters.
In December, Disney entered into a licensing agreement with OpenAI, allowing the start-up to use characters from the Star Wars, Pixar and Marvel franchises in its Sora video generator.
