ByteDance said Sunday it will strengthen copyright safeguards on Seedance 2.0, its AI video generation tool, after receiving cease-and-desist letters from Disney and Paramount and a public demand from the Motion Picture Association to stop what it called massive infringement of U.S. copyrighted works.
The company's statement to CNBC was two sentences long. ByteDance "respects intellectual property rights," it said, and is "taking steps to strengthen current safeguards." No specifics on what those steps are, no timeline, no acknowledgment that the model appears to have shipped with copyrighted characters baked into its outputs. When pressed for details, ByteDance didn't respond.
What happened, fast
Seedance 2.0 launched in China earlier this month through ByteDance's Jimeng AI platform. Within days, users were generating clips of copyrighted characters and celebrity likenesses. A viral video by Irish director Ruairi Robinson, showing AI-generated versions of Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt brawling on a rooftop, racked up over 3.2 million views on X. Deadpool screenwriter Rhett Reese responded bluntly: "I hate to say it. It's likely over for us."
Hollywood's response was swift and coordinated in a way that felt rehearsed. MPA chairman Charles Rivkin issued a statement accusing Seedance 2.0 of engaging in unauthorized use of copyrighted works "on a massive scale." Disney followed with a cease-and-desist on Friday, and Paramount sent its own on Saturday.
Disney's letter was brutal
According to Variety's reporting, Disney accused ByteDance of conducting a "virtual smash-and-grab" and alleged the platform had been pre-loaded with what it called a pirated library of characters from Marvel, Star Wars, and other Disney franchises, treating them like "free public domain clip art." That phrasing, "pre-loaded," is doing real work: Disney isn't just saying users are misusing the tool. It's saying ByteDance shipped the tool ready to infringe.
Paramount's letter named specific properties: South Park, SpongeBob SquarePants, Star Trek, The Godfather, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Gabriel Miller, Paramount Skydance's head of intellectual property, called it "blatant infringement." SAG-AFTRA piled on Friday, condemning the unauthorized use of members' voices and likenesses.
The $1 billion contrast
Here's what makes this story more than a standard IP dispute. Two months ago, Disney signed a three-year licensing deal with OpenAI, investing $1 billion and granting access to more than 200 characters for use in Sora, OpenAI's video generator. Disney CEO Bob Iger framed it as responsible innovation. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman called Disney "the global gold standard for storytelling."
OpenAI's Sora had its own copyright problems when it launched. The MPA told OpenAI in late 2025 to take "immediate and decisive action" against infringement on the platform. But instead of litigation, that dispute ended with a billion-dollar check and a licensing agreement. The message to ByteDance, and to every other AI video company watching, is not subtle: pay the toll or face the lawyers.
The exclusivity window on Disney's OpenAI deal is just one year, after which Disney can license its IP to other AI companies. So there's a version of this story where ByteDance eventually gets a deal too. But the negotiating dynamic is different when you're a Chinese company that just got caught generating SpongeBob without permission, versus an American company that showed up with a billion dollars.
What ByteDance hasn't said
ByteDance hasn't disclosed what training data powers Seedance 2.0. It hasn't explained why the model generates recognizable copyrighted characters so readily. It paused the ability for users to upload photos of real people, according to NBC News, but that doesn't address the character IP issue at all.
The model is currently available mainly to Chinese users, but ByteDance plans to integrate it into CapCut, its video editing app used by TikTok creators worldwide. An API launch is reportedly planned for February 24. Whether Hollywood's legal pressure changes that rollout timeline is unclear, but bringing Seedance to global CapCut users without resolving the copyright questions would be an aggressive move even by ByteDance's standards.
Japan has reportedly launched its own investigation into Seedance after AI-generated anime characters appeared online, according to BBC reporting cited by Variety. This isn't just a Hollywood problem.
The next date that matters: February 24, when ByteDance is expected to open Seedance 2.0's API and expand international access. If the copyright safeguards ByteDance promised are as vague as its statement, expect the cease-and-desist letters to turn into lawsuits.
