Disney accuses ByteDance of ‘virtual smash-and-grab’ when using copyrighted works to train its AI

Disney is going after another generative AI tool, accusing ByteDance and its recently released Seedance 2.0 of using its copyrighted material without permission. As first reported AxiosThe Walt Disney Company sent a cease and desist letter to ByteDance, claiming that the Chinese company developed its Seedance tool “with a pirated library of copyrighted Disney characters from Star Wars, Marvel and other Disney franchises, as if Disney’s coveted intellectual property were free, public domain clip art.”

The letter, obtained by Axiosincluded sample Seedance videos featuring copyrighted Disney characters including Spider-Man, Darth Vader, Peter Griffin and more. Even though ByteDance just released Seedance 2.0 on Thursday, it has already garnered praise, but also outrage from Hollywood studios, for its AI generation capabilities.

Thanks to the strong initial momentum, Seedance has already found itself in a sticky situation with one of the largest media companies in the world. However, this is not the first time Disney has threatened legal action against an AI company, since Character.AI received a cease and desist letter for the same offense in September. A few months later, Disney even accused Google of copyright infringement when training its AI models. On the other hand, Disney has partnered with OpenAI in a three-year licensing deal that allows the AI ​​giant to generate images and videos using this highly sought-after intellectual property.