Bytedance restricts Seedance after Disney threatens legal action over IP violations

Bytedance has announced it will restrict its AI video tool Seedance after Disney threatened the company with legal action. In a cease-and-desist letter, Disney accused Bytedance of maintaining a pirate library of protected characters from Marvel, Star Wars, and other franchises - what Disney's lawyers called a virtual "smash-and-grab" of intellectual property. Disney has signed an exclusive deal with OpenAI.

Since the launch of Seedance 2.0, viral videos featuring copyrighted characters have been popping up across social media. Paramount Skydance also sent a cease-and-desist letter. The Motion Picture Association and the Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) both demanded an immediate end to the violations. Japan has also opened an investigation into possible copyright infringement involving anime characters.

Bytedance told the BBC that it respects intellectual property and is working on stronger protections, but didn't share any specifics.