ByteDance will take steps to prevent the unauthorised use of intellectual property on its artificial intelligence (AI) video generator Seedance 2.0, the Chinese technology firm said on Monday.
The statement follows threats of legal action from U.S. studios such as Disney.
Disney sent a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance accusing the firm of using its characters to train and power Seedance 2.0 without permission, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The letter alleged Seedance was reproducing and distributing works featuring characters such as Spider-Man and Darth Vader.
The film company stated that ByteDance had pre-packaged the tool with a pirated library of copyrighted characters from franchises such as Star Wars and Marvel.
The accusation claims these were portrayed as if they were public-domain clip art.
"We are taking steps to strengthen current safeguards as we work to prevent the unauthorised use of intellectual property and likeness by users," ByteDance said in a statement.
The company did not elaborate on the specific measures it was taking.
Viral content
Seedance 2.0 was released last week and videos generated by the tool have quickly gone viral in China. Some examples include AI-generated clips of actors such as Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt.
The AI model has been compared to DeepSeek and noted for its ability to produce cinematic storylines with minimal prompts.
Wider industry pushback
Paramount Skydance has also sent a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance, accusing the firm of engaging in "blatant infringement" of its intellectual property, Variety reported.
Disney has taken similar actions against Character.AI, demanding the startup stop the unauthorised use of its copyrighted characters.
In contrast, Disney signed a licensing deal with OpenAI in December to allow the startup to use characters from Star Wars, Pixar, and Marvel franchises in its Sora video generator.
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