Disney sends cease-and-desist to ByteDance over alleged AI copyright infringement

The Walt Disney Company has sent a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance, accusing the Chinese tech giant of using its copyrighted characters to train and power an AI video generation model without permission.

The letter, which was sent to ByteDance Global General Counsel John Rogovin on Friday, alleges that ByteDance’s new AI tool Seedance 2.0 violates Disney intellectual property rights by creating and distributing characters from Star Wars and Marvel and other franchises. Disney claims the alleged AI copyright infringement is wilful and commercially driven.

Disney vs ByteDance

In the letter, Disney’s outside counsel strongly criticised ByteDance’s actions. Disney’s outside attorney, David Singer, said the company is “hijacking Disney’s characters” and treating its intellectual property as if it were free public domain content.

The complaint lists examples of AI-generated videos which show Spider-Man, Darth Vader, Grogu and Peter Griffin appearing in videos that spread across social media platforms.

Disney argues that Seedance 2.0 was launched with a “pre-packaged” library of copyrighted material. The studio also claims the AI video generator benefits commercially from these works without a licensing agreement.

The Motion Picture Association Chairman and CEO, Charles Rivkin, called on ByteDance to immediately stop the alleged infringement. The Human Artistry Campaign, which includes SAG-AFTRA and the Directors Guild of America, also urged authorities to take action.

This is the strongest move yet by a Hollywood studio against ByteDance’s AI video model. Disney has previously taken action against Character.AI, Google, Midjourney, and MiniMax over similar copyright concerns.