Hollywood's MPA calls Bytedance's Seedance 2.0 a machine built for "systemic infringement"

Update from February 22, 2026:

Bytedance's promises (see below) apparently aren't cutting it for Hollywood. The Motion Picture Association has sent the company a cease-and-desist letter over Seedance 2.0. The trade group calls it "systemic infringement" and argues that copyright violations aren't a bug but a feature of the AI video generator.

The MPA pushes back on the idea that this is a problem caused by users. Instead, it says the issue is baked into the technology itself. Bytedance trained its model on studio content without permission, shipped the service without safeguards, and through its own actions "reproduced and distributed content that blatantly infringes the MPA Member Studios' copyrights."

The MPA says the letter represents a "collective industry response." Before the trade group got involved, Netflix, Warner Bros., Disney, Paramount, and Sony had already fired off their own cease-and-desist letters to Bytedance. Warner Bros. called Bytedance's playbook a familiar one among generative AI companies: first they violate copyrights for marketing purposes, then bolt on safeguards once legal pressure builds. OpenAI used the same tactic more than once.

Ongoing investigations keep turning up examples where Seedance clearly violates the rights of member studios, the association states. Rumors suggest the copyright complaints are pushing back the release of the Seedance 2.0 API, which was officially set to launch on February 24. The delay could be Bytedance scrambling to add stronger safeguards that make it harder for users to generate copyrighted material.

Original article from February 16, 2026:

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.