ByteDance Pledges Curbs On Seedance 2.0 After Paramount And Disney's Legal Threat Over IP Violations

Paramount Skydance on Saturday (February 14) sent a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance, accusing the Chinese internet company of engaging in “blatant infringement” of its intellectual property through its Seedance video and Seedream image generative AI platforms. Paramount Skydance has alleged that the company has plundered the IP (intellectual property) of Hollywood titles, including The Godfather, Dora the Explorer, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and others.

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and Disney also threatened legal action against the Chinese tech giant, alleging "massive copyright infringement". Following legal threats, ByteDance has now assured to curb Seedance 2.0.

ByteDance pledges to curb Seedance 2.0

The TikTok parent company told the BBC that it “respects intellectual property rights and we have heard the concerns regarding Seedance 2.0,” and is “taking steps to strengthen current safeguards as we work to prevent the unauthorised use of intellectual property and likeness by users.”

Paramount's letter to ByteDance

Gabriel Miller, the head of Paramount Skydance’s intellectual property, addressed the letter to ByteDance CEO Liang Rubo, according to Variety.

In the letter to ByteDance, Miller wrote that “much of the content that the Seed Platforms produce contains vivid depictions of Paramount’s famous and iconic franchises and characters, which are protected under copyright law, trademark law, and the law of unfair competition (among other doctrines).”

The letter stated that Paramount's intellectual properties, such as South Park, SpongeBob SquarePants, Star Trek, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Godfather, Dora the Explorer and Avatar: The Last Airbender, have “all been repeatedly infringed by the Seed Platforms’ production and subsequent public performance and distribution of these images and videos.”

“ByteDance’s infringing activities appear not only to be continuing but becoming more prevalent and the unlawful outputs more widely disseminated,” Miller wrote.

Paramount Skydance demanded that “ByteDance immediately take all necessary steps to (i) prevent violations of our intellectual property rights by ensuring that our content is not used or created by ByteDance or the Seed Platforms going forward, and (ii) remove all infringing instances of Paramount’s content from ByteDance’s platforms and systems.”

Disney also sends a letter to the Chinese internet giant

Paramount Skydance’s letter comes after Disney's cease-and-desist letter, sent on Friday to ByteDance, alleging that the company provided Seedance with access to a “pirated library” of Disney’s copyrighted characters from Star Wars, Marvel, and other Disney franchises.

“ByteDance’s virtual smash-and-grab of Disney’s IP is willful, pervasive, and totally unacceptable,” David Singer, a partner at Jenner & Block, wrote on behalf of Disney.

SAG-AFTRA, the actors' union, said that it "stands with the studios in condemning the blatant infringement" enabled by Seedance 2.0.

"The infringement includes the unauthorised use of our members' voices and likenesses. This is unacceptable and undercuts the ability of human talent to earn a livelihood," SAG-AFTRA said in a statement.

"Seedance 2.0 disregards law, ethics, industry standards and basic principles of consent. Responsible AI development demands responsibility, and that is nonexistent here."