Feb 18, 2026
3 min read
Videos featuring Spider-Man and other Disney intellectual property characters have gone viral since Cedence's update.
ByteDance to block AI video apps after Disney's legal threat
Chinese tech giant ByteDance has vowed to stop making controversial artificial intelligence (AI) videos following threats of legal action from Disney and complaints from other entertainment companies.
in the past few daysVideos created with the latest version of the Seedance app have gone viral online.Many have been praised for their realism.
But the trend has also prompted a warning from several Hollywood studios who are accusing AI platform makers of copyright infringement.
On Friday, Disney sent ByteDance a cease-and-desist letter, accusing Seedance of providing a "pirate library" of the studio's copyrighted characters, including Marvel and Star Wars characters.
Disney's lawyers have accused ByteDance of "virtually smashing and plundering" its intellectual property, which includes superheroes from Marvel, Star Wars and various cartoons.
ByteDance said on Monday that the company respects intellectual property rights and that we have heard concerns about Seedance 2.0.
“We are taking steps to strengthen existing protections as we work to prevent unauthorized use of intellectual property and likeness by users.”
ByteDance did not respond to questions about the details of the protections it plans to implement.
Like other generative AI tools, Sedance can create videos based on short text queries.
Many of Seadance's clips are based on real actors and shows and some have gone viral since the launch of its latest 2.0 version on February 12.
Footage showing Star Wars characters Anakin Skywalker and Rey battling with their lightsabers and Spider-Man battling Captain America on the streets of New York were allegedly created by Seadance online.
The company does not disclose what data it uses to train Seedance.
ByteDance previously reported that the product prevented users from uploading photos of real people.
The company also said it respects intellectual property and copyright protection and takes any potential infringement seriously.
Last year, Disney struck a $1bn (£730m) deal with ChatGPT and video creation tools maker Sora OpenAI, giving the platforms access to 200 characters from its franchises including Pixar, Marvel and Star Wars.
Disney's legal threat follows criticism from other Hollywood organizations about the seeding platform.Paramount Skydance also reportedly sent letters to Bytedance asking them to stop using the seed's content.Paramount Skydance is close to responding.
The Motion Picture Association, which represents major US studios such as Warner Bros.Discovery, Paramount and Netflix demanded that the tool "immediately cease its infringing activities."
Actors' union Sag-Aftra also accused Seedance of "gross misconduct".
Meanwhile, the Japanese government has been investigating a Chinese company for possible copyright infringement after a popular Japanese animated film appeared to be powered by AI.
Other AI imaging tools have also been affected by legal action.
Last year, Disney and NBCUniversal sued AI image maker Midjourney, accusing the platform of creating "unlimited unauthorized copies" of the studios' copyrighted works.The case is ongoing.
Disney asked Google to limit the generation of its characters to Google's AI system.
