Hollywood organizations are pushing back against a new AI video model called Seedance 2.0who say it quickly became a tool for “blatant” copyright infringement.
ByteDance, the Chinese company that recently completed a deal to sell TikTok’s US operations (retaining a stake in the new joint venture), released Seedance 2.0 earlier this week. According to the Wall Street Journalthe updated model is currently available to Chinese users of ByteDance’s Jianying app, and the company says it will soon be available to global users of the CapCut app.
Similar to tools like OpenAI’s Sora, Seedance allows users to create videos (currently limited to 15 seconds) by simply entering a text prompt. And like Sora, Seedance was quick to criticize an apparent lack of safeguards around the ability to create videos using the likeness of real people, as well as the studios’ intellectual property.
After a user X posted a short video shows Tom Cruise fighting Brad Pitt, said to be created from “a 2-line prompt in seedance 2,” “Deadpool” screenwriter. Rhett Rees answered“I hate to say it. It’s likely over for us.”
The Cinema Union was soon released a statement by CEO Charles Rivkin demanding that ByteDance “immediately cease its infringing activity.”
“Within a day, the Chinese AI service Seedance 2.0 has engaged in unauthorized use of US copyrighted works on a massive scale,” Rivkin said. “By launching a service that operates without meaningful safeguards against infringement, ByteDance is ignoring well-established copyright law that protects the rights of creators and supports millions of jobs in America.”
The Human Artistry Campaign – an initiative backed by Hollywood unions and trade groups – condemned Seedance 2.0 as “an attack on a very creative worldwide”, while said the actors’ union SAG-AFTRA “Stands with studios in condemning flagrant infringement enabled by Bytedance’s new AI video model Seedance 2.0.”
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The Seedance videos apparently feature Disney-owned characters such as Spider-Man, Darth Vader and Grogu, better known as Baby Yoda, prompting the company to take legal action. Axios reports that Disney sent a cease and desist letter accusing ByteDance of “virtual smash and grab of Disney’s IP” and claiming that the Chinese company is “pirating Disney characters by reproducing, distributing and creating derivative works of those characters.”
Disney isn’t necessarily averse to working with AI companies – while it has reportedly sent a cease-and-desist letter to Google over similar issues, it has signed a three-year licensing deal with OpenAI.
TechCrunch has reached out to ByteDance for comment.
