Disney sent a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance, accusing the company of using copyrighted Disney characters to train its recently released Seedance 2.0 AI tool without permission, according to Axios. In the letter, Disney described the alleged infringement as a “virtual smash-and-grab” of intellectual property. The entertainment giant stated that ByteDance developed Seedance using a “pirated library” of characters from Star Wars, Marvel, and other franchises.
The cease-and-desist letter included examples of Seedance-generated videos featuring characters such as Spider-Man, Darth Vader, and Peter Griffin. Disney asserted that its intellectual property was treated as “free public domain clip art.” The accusation follows the Thursday release of Seedance 2.0, which reportedly received both praise and criticism from Hollywood studios regarding its AI-generating capabilities.
This action is part of a broader strategy by Disney to enforce copyright against AI developers. In September, the company sent a similar cease-and-desist letter to Character.AI for the same offense. Several months later, Disney accused Google of copyright infringement related to the training of its AI models. Conversely, Disney has also pursued partnerships with AI companies, recently signing a three-year licensing agreement with OpenAI that permits the generation of images and videos using Disney’s intellectual property.
