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ByteDance, the Chinese technology company behind TikTok, announced plans to enhance protections for its latest artificial intelligence tool that generates videos from text descriptions, in response to accusations of copyright infringement from major U.S. entertainment companies.
The tool, known as Seedance 2.0, allows users to produce lifelike videos, but social media has been flooded with examples featuring protected characters and celebrity images without permission, sparking widespread intellectual property disputes.
In a statement provided to CNBC, a ByteDance representative emphasized the company’s commitment to intellectual property rights. The representative noted awareness of the issues surrounding Seedance 2.0 and outlined efforts to bolster existing protections to block unauthorized exploitation of protected materials and personal images by users.
This move follows sharp criticism from the Motion Picture Association, an industry group advocating for studios such as Netflix, Paramount Skydance, Sony, Universal, Warner Bros. Discovery and Disney. Late last week, the association released a strong declaration urging ByteDance to halt what it described as unlawful operations.
Charles Rivkin, the association’s chairman and chief executive, stated that Seedance 2.0 had, in just one day, extensively misused American copyrighted content. He argued that deploying a service lacking effective barriers to such violations ignores longstanding copyright protections essential for creators and supporting countless U.S. employment opportunities.
Reports indicate Disney issued a formal demand on Friday for ByteDance to stop, claiming the tool unlawfully copies and shares its intellectual assets. According to details from Axios, the notice asserted that ByteDance had essentially bundled the software with a collection of stolen copyrighted elements, treating them like freely available graphics.
Disney has previously taken similar actions against other AI developers, including a September notice to Character.AI demanding an end to the improper use of its characters. At the same time, the company has pursued partnerships, such as a licensing agreement with OpenAI that permits the use of elements from Star Wars, Pixar and Marvel in the Sora video creation platform.
Paramount Skydance has likewise dispatched a comparable legal warning to ByteDance, as covered by Variety over the weekend, echoing concerns about intellectual property violations through the AI application.
