ByteDance said it would impose restrictions on its controversial AI video generation tool Seedance and said it would strengthen existing protections to prevent users from unauthorized use of other people's intellectual property and portrait rights. The statement came after Disney threatened legal action and complaints from multiple entertainment industry bodies.
In the past few days, with the launch of the latest version of Seedance, a large number of videos generated by the tool have spread rapidly on the Internet. Many of the works have been sought after for their realism, but they have also triggered concerns and accusations of copyright infringement by many Hollywood studios.
According to reports, Disney sent a "cease-and-desist" letter to ByteDance last Friday, accusing it of providing Seedance with a "pirated material library" including Marvel, Star Wars and other characters, and described this acquisition of intellectual property as a "virtual smash-and-grab."
ByteDance responded to the BBC on Monday by saying that the company "respects intellectual property rights" and has noticed external concerns about Seedance 2.0 and will take measures to strengthen the protection mechanism, but did not further elaborate on what specific technologies or rules will be implemented. Seedance, like other generative AI tools, can generate videos based on short text prompts; after its 2.0 version was launched on February 12, some clips based on real actors and film and television works became popular online, while ByteDance did not disclose the source of data used to train the model.
Several videos purportedly generated by Seedance have also appeared on the Internet, such as Star Wars characters Anakin and Rey fighting with lightsabers, and Spider-Man fighting Captain America on the streets of New York; ByteDance has previously said it has suspended the ability for users to upload photos of real people and said it would take potential infringement issues seriously.
In addition to Disney, the report mentioned that Paramount Skydance also allegedly sent a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance; the Motion Picture Association of America (MPA), which represents major U.S. studios such as Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount, and Netflix, demanded that the tool "immediately cease infringement activities." The actors union SAG-AFTRA also accused it of "blatant infringement." The Japanese government launched an investigation into the Chinese company for potential copyright violations due to AI-generated videos of popular Japanese animated characters appearing online.
Copyright lawsuits surrounding generative AI are increasing: Disney reached a $1 billion (approximately 730 million pounds) cooperation with OpenAI last year, allowing relevant platforms to use about 200 of its characters; Disney and NBC Universal also sued the AI image generator Midjourney last year, claiming that it generated "endless unauthorized copies." The case is still ongoing, and Disney has also asked Google to restrict its AI platform from generating Disney characters.