A source familiar with the situation told Reuters that Disney has sent a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance, accusing the Chinese company of using Disney characters to train and power its Seedance 2.0 AI video generator without their permission.
It was reported that Disney stated that ByteDance had pre‑packaged Seedance with a pirated library of copyrighted characters from franchises, such as Star Wars and Marvel, making them as if they were public-domain clip art.
The letter claims Seedance is emulating, distributing, and creating derivative works with Spider-Man, Dark Vader, and other characters.
The Chinese company reported BBC on Sunday that ByteDance reinforced security around its Seedance 2.0 AI-powered video creator to ensure the unauthorized use of copyrighted personalities and celebrity imagery. ByteDance did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
The move by Disney was first reported by online news outlet Axios. Variety reported over the weekend that Paramount Skydance has also dispatched the cease-and-desist letter to the Chinese company, claiming that it has been involved in engaging in “blatant infringement” of its intellectual property.
The videos created by Seedance 2.0, which was released last week, have become viral in China, including one where Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt were fighting. The AI model has been likened to DeepSeek and has been commended for its capability to create cinematic narratives using only several prompts.
However, Disney has taken similar actions against Character.AI, demanding that the startup immediately stop the unauthorized use of its copyrighted characters.
Disney entered a licensing agreement in December with OpenAI, which would allow the startup to incorporate characters in Star Wars, Pixar, and Marvel franchises into its Sora video generator.
