ByteDance Seedance 2.0 global rollout pause over copyright claims

TikTok owner ByteDance has reportedly paused the global rollout of its new AI video-generation model Seedance 2.0 after facing copyright disputes with major Hollywood studios and streaming platforms.

The reason behind the delay is the company’s review of the legal issues surrounding the use of the copyrighted characters to train the model.

ByteDance Seedance 2.0 vs The Walt Disney Company

Reportedly, the company had planned to roll out the tool globally by mid-March but has since put the plans on hold.

One of the main concerns was raised by The Walt Disney Company, which sent a cease-and-desist letter to the firm last month. The reason for the letter was the firm’s use of the copyrighted characters of the Star Wars franchise and the Marvel Cinematic Universe without the firm’s permission.

The matter was escalated after a series of videos created by the tool went viral in China. The videos showed digital versions of popular celebrities Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt appearing in a fictional fight.

According to reports, Disney claimed that Seedance provided a library of copyrighted characters which the software developer treated as public-domain assets.

ByteDance launched its professional filmmaking and advertising and e-commerce creation tool Seedance 2.0 in February. The system allows users to create cinematic content from basic prompts because it can handle text and images and audio and video materials.

The model has gained worldwide recognition because it contributes to the ongoing artificial intelligence competition between countries. Technology executives, such as Elon Musk, have commended the system for its ability to produce detailed narratives from limited data.

Industry observers have compared the system to models developed by DeepSeek, which has built AI systems that compete with products from OpenAI and Anthropic.

The report said ByteDance’s legal and engineering teams are now working to address potential intellectual property issues before proceeding with any global launch. Engineers are reportedly adding safeguards to prevent the system from generating copyrighted characters or other protected material.