The world's largest film studios, including Disney, Netflix, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Sony, have sent pre-litigation letters to the Chinese conglomerate ByteDance. The bone of contention is the new Seedance 2.0 application, which can generate hyper-realistic video materials using the likenesses of stars and copyrighted characters. The film industry warns that this tool facilitates mass piracy and the unlawful exploitation of their most valuable intellectual property.

Collective resistance of major studios

Disney, Netflix, Warner Bros., and Sony sent official pre-litigation letters to ByteDance regarding copyright infringements.

Hyper-realism as a new threat

The Seedance 2.0 model enabled the creation of deceptively realistic videos featuring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt, shocking public opinion.

Protection of iconic brands

Studios are defending the likeness of characters such as Batman, Superman, or heroes from Stranger Things from their free exploitation by AI.

The conflict between Hollywood and the Chinese tech giant ByteDance has entered a phase of open legal warfare. The trigger was the launch of the Seedance 2.0 model, a next-generation tool for creating video materials from text descriptions. The application gained instant popularity after a viral 15-second video surfaced online, depicting Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt engaged in a brutal fight on a skyscraper rooftop in a post-apocalyptic setting. The realism of the recording, which included dialogue about conspiracy theories, shocked industry experts and producers. Following Disney and Paramount, official letters demanding an end to the violations were sent by Netflix, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Sony Pictures. The corporations' lawyers accuse the Chinese company that its AI model was trained on a "pirated library" of materials, allowing users to generate new scenes with impunity featuring characters such as Batman, Superman, heroes from "Stranger Things," or "Game of Thrones." Netflix gave ByteDance a three-day ultimatum to remove protected content, threatening immediate legal action. In 2023, Hollywood experienced a months-long strike by writers and actors, for whom a key point of negotiations with the studios was regulating the use of AI and protecting their likeness from digital manipulation.15-second — recording with Cruise and Pitt triggered a crisis in Hollywood Representatives of the Motion Picture Association and the SAG-AFTRA union emphasize that the uncontrolled development of Seedance 2.0 poses an existential threat to traditional cinema. Although ByteDance publicly declares its willingness to cooperate and announces the implementation of "protective mechanisms," film studios consider these steps to be too late and insufficient. They argue that the Chinese company is knowingly promoting a tool lacking filters to build reach at the expense of others' creative work. This situation is becoming a precedent that could define the future of copyright protection in the era of generative artificial intelligence.Ultimatum: 3Timeline of the Seedance dispute escalation: February 15 — Seedance 2.0 Launch; February 17 — Viral Star Fight; February 18 — Legal Offensive; February 19 — Sony Joins Protest

Mentioned People

  • Tom Cruise — American actor whose digital likeness was unlawfully used to demonstrate the capabilities of the Seedance 2.0 model.
  • Brad Pitt — Famous actor appearing alongside Tom Cruise in a viral video generated by artificial intelligence.
  • Wayne M. Smith — Head of the legal department at Warner Bros. Discovery, who directly intervened in the IP infringement case.