ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, is reportedly putting new guardrails into its video generation model Seedance 2.0 following cease and desist letters from major production companies.
The video generation tool, which produces realistic Hollywood-ready videos, has faced backlash from major production companies claiming the tool uses the likeness of copyrighted characters and concepts.
Many users have taken to the platform to create realistic videos featuring stars from real films, posting the content online.
Disney sent a cease-and-desist letter to the Chinese company on Friday, accusing it of using a “pirated library” of characters taken from major productions like Star Wars.
Disney has also previously sued Midjourney, another AI video tool, for enabling users to generate content featuring Disney likeness and characters using the platform without permission.
Disney and OpenAI entered a lucrative contract worth $1 billion last year, enabling the AI giant to use Disney’s copyrighted content to power its video generation tool Sora.
Paramount has also reportedly sent a cease-and-desist letter to stop their characters being used in video generation.
“Undercuts Human Talent”
A number of associations within the film and TV industries have spoken out against Seedance’s copyright infringement.
The Motion Picture Association, which represents Paramount and Netflix, has spoken out against the video generation platform, saying it must stop its “unauthorised use of U.S. copyrighted works.”
Sag-Aftra, the world’s largest actors, broadcasters and recording artists labour union, condemned the “blatant infringement” enabled by the platform, and called the use of actor’s likeness “unacceptable” and that it “undercuts the ability of human talent to earn a livelihood”.
As a result, ByteDance has said it is taking steps to ensure there are necessary guardrails to prevent the unauthorised use of intellectual property and likeness on Seedance.
ByteDance has also reportedly stopped users from uploading images of real people to the platform.
