Disney accuses ByteDance's Seedance 2.0 of infringing Star Wars, Marvel characters

The Walt Disney Company has sent a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance, the maker of TikTok, alleging that the Chinese tech giant illicitly used its characters to train an AI video generation model, Seedance 2.0.

The letter marks the start of a serious legal action from a Hollywood studio against ByteDance since the model's launch on Thursday.

Disney's infringement case against ByteDance

Disney's letter, addressed to ByteDance's global general counsel John Rogovin, highlights that Seedance is packaged with a "pirated library" of Disney's copyrighted characters from franchises like Star Wars and Marvel, Axios reported.

Disney's attorney, David Singer, stated: "ByteDance is hijacking Disney's characters by reproducing, distributing, and creating derivative works featuring those characters."

He maintained that this infringement on popular Disney characters is widespread and unacceptable, citing numerous instances of Seedance videos featuring iconic characters such as Spider-Man and Baby Yoda.

Industry response against ByteDance use of Disney characters

Hollywood has also condemned ByteDance and Seedance 2.0 for violating the laws of intellectual property rights. Motion Picture Association CEO Charles Rivkin has called for an immediate halt to these activities.

In the past as well, Disney has vigorously defended its intellectual property against AI companies, as it has successfully forced changes from Character.AI and Google regarding the use of its content over the recent past.

Disney is said to be open to partnerships with AI firms, provided the terms are appropriate. An example of this is its fresh deal with OpenAI.