Last week, a short video clip featuring Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise fighting in what appeared to be a big-budget action movie went viral online. The footage was generated using Seedance 2.0, a new AI video-generation tool developed by ByteDance, the Chinese tech company behind TikTok. The realism on display was striking enough that some in Hollywood reportedly warned that it’s “likely over for us.” Still, studios aren’t about to sit back and allow their copyrighted characters and recognizable likenesses to be used without permission.
Major Hollywood studios have sent ByteDance an avalanche of cease-and-desist letters, and the threat of legal action from companies including Disney and Paramount has forced the company to respond.
ByteDance Responds to Hollywood Threats
In a statement, a ByteDance spokesperson said: “ByteDance respects intellectual property rights and we have heard the concerns regarding Seedance 2.0. We are taking steps to strengthen current safeguards as we work to prevent the unauthorized use of intellectual property and likeness by users.“
ByteDance has not disclosed what training data powers Seedance, but the company recently paused user uploads of images of real people.
The cease-and-desist letter from Disney slammed Seedance 2.0 as “a pirated library of Disney’s copyrighted characters from Star Wars, Marvel, and other Disney franchises, as if Disney’s coveted intellectual property were free public domain clip art… ByteDance’s virtual smash-and-grab of Disney’s IP is willful, pervasive, and totally unacceptable.“
Paramount’s Gabriel Miller, Paramount Skydance’s head of intellectual property, said, “much of the content that the Seed Platforms produce contains vivid depictions of Paramount’s famous and iconic franchises and characters, which are protected under copyright law, trademark law, and the law of unfair competition (among other doctrines).“
A statement from the MPA said, “In a single day, the Chinese AI service Seedance 2.0 has engaged in unauthorized use of U.S. copyrighted works on a massive scale. By launching a service that operates without meaningful safeguards against infringement, ByteDance is disregarding well-established copyright law that protects the rights of creators and underpins millions of American jobs. ByteDance should immediately cease its infringing activity.“
We’ve Been Through This With Sora
This situation echoes what happened last year when OpenAI launched Sora 2. Much like Seedance 2.0, users quickly began generating videos featuring characters from Star Wars, Avatar, Family Guy, James Bond, The Simpsons, and more.
The studio response was similarly swift, but those early tensions eventually led to licensing agreements with some companies. Disney ultimately invested $1 billion in OpenAI, allowing Sora to use characters from Star Wars, Frozen, and other Disney properties. The three-year licensing agreement allows fans to create AI-generated videos featuring Captain America, Yoda, Moana, and more. It raises the question of whether ByteDance could eventually reach a similar arrangement with Hollywood.
While many Seedance 2.0 videos still show familiar AI artifacts, others are surprisingly convincing. The technology is advancing rapidly, and it may only be a matter of time before AI-generated video becomes nearly indistinguishable from traditional filmmaking, even to trained eyes.
