Disney, Paramount send legal notice to ByteDance over AI video
Hollywood is going after Chinese firm ByteDance for its CyDance 2.0 AI video generation model. Disney and Paramount have sent legal notices to the company, and the Hollywood Actors Association has also spoken out. Here’s how ByteDance responded.
Last week, Chinese tech firm ByteDance made waves with its latest AI video generation model – CDance 2.0. The model can produce such realistic videos that many feared Hollywood could be in danger. However, Hollywood has taken notice, with Disney and Paramount Skydance sending legal notices. Here are all the details.
Disney initiated this legal battle by sending a cease-and-desist order to the Chinese company. The company accused ByteDance of packaging Cedance with “a pirated library of Disney’s copyrighted characters from Star Wars, Marvel, and other Disney franchises, as if Disney’s iconic intellectual property were free public domain clip art.” David Singer, representing Disney, wrote: “ByteDance’s virtual appropriation of Disney’s IP is deliberate, pervasive, and completely unacceptable.”
Paramount Skydance described ByteDance’s actions as a “gross violation” of its intellectual property, specifically naming titles including “South Park,” “Star Trek,” “The Godfather,” and “Dora the Explorer.” In its letter, Paramount Skydance demanded that ByteDance immediately cease the alleged violations.
Paramount’s letter also claims that AI-generated images and videos from these platforms are “often visually and audibly indistinguishable” from authorized Paramount works.
What did ByteDance say?
ByteDance responded to the allegations by releasing a statement: “ByteDance respects intellectual property rights and we have heard the concerns about SeeDance 2.0. We are taking steps to strengthen existing security measures as we work to prevent unauthorized use of intellectual property and likenesses by users.” The company did not say what specific measures it would take to meet the studio’s demands.
While Disney and Paramount Skydance are the two big studios that have started this legal battle, the actors are also not staying silent. Actors union SAG-AFTRA and the Human Artistry Campaign – a coalition of artists’ rights groups that are affiliated with Hollywood unions – have spoken out against ByteDance’s AI model.
The controversy comes as SeeDance 2.0 has gained attention for its ability to create cinematic videos from text prompts, with viral clips of celebrities circulating online.
Hollywood has made compromises with AI video in the past. Last year, Disney partnered with OpenAI to feature its characters in videos generated by AI model Sora.
