Disney has taken legal action against ByteDance, the company behind the AI tool Seedance 2.0, accusing it of using copyrighted Disney characters without permission to train its AI model.
According to a report by Axios, Disney sent a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance, alleging that the company engaged in a “virtual smash-and-grab” of its intellectual property by using a “pirated library” of characters from popular franchises like Star Wars and Marvel. The letter included examples of videos generated by Seedance featuring characters such as Spider-Man, Darth Vader, and Peter Griffin, with Disney asserting that its intellectual property was treated as “free public domain clip art.”
The accusation comes after the release of Seedance 2.0 on Thursday, which received mixed reviews from Hollywood studios regarding its AI-generating capabilities. This is not the first time Disney has taken action against AI developers for copyright infringement. In September, the company sent a similar cease-and-desist letter to Character.AI for the same offense, and later accused Google of copyright infringement related to the training of its AI models.
Despite taking a firm stance against copyright infringement, Disney has also explored partnerships with AI companies. The entertainment giant recently signed a three-year licensing agreement with OpenAI, permitting the generation of images and videos using Disney’s intellectual property.
