ByteDance pauses Seedance 2.0 global launch after Hollywood studios pressure over copyright issues

ByteDance reportedly pauses global launch of its Seedance 2.0 video generator | TechCrunch

ByteDance has paused plans to launch its new AI video model globally, according to a report in The Information. The Chinese company, best known as TikTok's parent organization (and now a minority shareholder in its U.S. spinoff), launched Seedance 2.0 in China back in February. Brief videos generated by the model, including a clip featuring Tom Cruise fighting Brad Pitt, soon went viral and drew intense criticism from Hollywood. While one successful screenwriter declared that the footage meant, "It's likely over for us," studios quickly sent ByteDance a flurry of cease-and-desist letters, with Disney's lawyers accusing the company of a "virtual smash-and-grab of Disney's IP." ByteDance responded by promising to introduce stronger safeguards for intellectual property. The company had planned to make Seedance 2.0 available globally in mid-March, The Information said, but it's delaying those plans as its engineers and lawyers work to avert further legal issues. ByteDance did not immediately respond to TechCrunch's request for comment.

ByteDance's AI Video Tool Seedance 2.0 Reportedly Delayed Amid Hollywood Pressure

The global rollout of the video tool, which sparked panic with its cinema-quality AI-generated video, appears to be delayed. China's ByteDance is delaying the global rollout of its Seedance 2.0 video-generating AI model, according to a report from The Information. When it debuted in China in February, Seedance 2.0 caused a stir, as high-quality AI-generated videos made with the new model flooded social media, featuring existing actors and familiar intellectual property, including Tom Cruise and Star Wars. Unlike typical AI slop -- or even advanced video from other AI-generation models -- some of the Seedance-generated videos posted looked photorealistic enough to be mistaken for footage from big-budget Hollywood films or TV shows. The model was expected to be rolled out to other countries by mid-March, but according to the report, ByteDance is working on ways to address legal and copyright issues that would arise in countries outside China. Hollywood studios and unions did not react kindly to the videos that surfaced online in February. The Motion Picture Association demanded that ByteDance "immediately cease its infringing activity," referring to copyrighted works that appear to be used in training the model. Labor union SAG-AFTRA, representing Hollywood performers, said it also condemned the Seedance model, pointing to the danger that the AI model could pose to actors' careers in a statement. The union noted: "Seedance 2.0 disregards law, ethics, industry standards and basic principles of consent." Representatives for ByteDance and SAG-AFTRA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Like many other industries, the entertainment world is being upended by AI technologies, with concerns that tools will put human creatives out of work. As AI-generated video content, animation, screenwriting and other forms evolve rapidly, popular photo and video generators are getting heat for propagating deepfakes and relying on copyrighted content. Many would have trouble spotting an AI-generated actress as fake, and viewers could easily confuse some AI-generated cinema with Marvel movies or other full-blown Hollywood productions. While other AI-generators tools such as OpenAI's Sora or Google's Veo can quickly make videos good enough for casual social media use, Seedance 2.0 appears to be able to bypass some of the usual tells of AI video -- text appears clear and not garbled, faces look convincingly human and there aren't extra fingers or other strange AI hallucinations you might find in other AI video models. One viral example of this was "Will Smith Eating Spaghetti," in which Seedance 2.0 created a video that convincingly depicted the actor eating a plate of pasta. The degree of realism that makes footage practically indistinguishable from traditionally produced film and video is a prime reason why movie and TV studios have cause for concern.

TikTok Owner Puts Launch of AI Video Gen Tool on Ice

If you saw the intriguingly realistic viral AI video of a fight scene between Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt making the rounds on the internet last month and wanted to try the tool out for yourself, you may be waiting a while longer. TikTok parent company ByteDance has paused the launch of its new video-generation model, Seedance 2.0, which would compete with generative AI tools like OpenAI's Sora and Google's Veo. The decision to put the launch on ice was due to ongoing copyright disputes with Hollywood studios and streaming platforms, according to The Information. The Chinese firm had reportedly planned a mid-March launch for the video-generation model, but the company has since suspended those plans. ByteDance's legal team will now work on resolving and identifying legal issues surrounding the launch, while its engineering team will reportedly work on adding safeguards to stop the model from generating content that could provoke copyright disputes. Seedance started its limited beta in February, initially only available to users of ByteDance's Chinese apps, attracting significant attention from Hollywood after numerous videos it produced went viral. Deadpool screenwriter Rhett Reese reposted the Cruise and Pitt fight video, saying, "I hate to say it. It's likely over for us." Videos like Will Smith fighting a spaghetti monster and clips of the cast of Friends reimagined as otters also performed well on social media. We know that some of the biggest names in the media industry have already threatened legal challenges against Seedance. Last month, Disney hit ByteDance with a cease-and-desist letter after it allegedly used copyrighted characters from franchises such as Star Wars and Marvel like public-domain clip art. Meanwhile, media giant Paramount Skydance has also reportedly sent a cease-and-desist letter to the TikTok parent, claiming the Chinese firm supports "blatant infringement" of its intellectual property such as Star Trek, South Park, and Dora the Explorer, according to a report by Variety. It's not just Seedance. The new batch of emerging video-generation tools, like the wider AI industry, is being forced to deal with issues around how they handle existing intellectual property. OpenAI's Sora introduced greater privileges and granular control to rightsholders in 2025, following a glut of content based on existing IP -- from Pikachu to Oppenheimer.

Senators tell ByteDance to 'immediately shut down' Seedance AI video app

ByteDance reportedly postponed the global rollout of Seedance 2.0 to work through legal complications. Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Peter Welch are calling for a halt to the new version of ByteDance's artificial intelligence app, Seedance, which generates videos of real people and licensed characters, raising copyright and intellectual property concerns. Seedance 2.0 "is the most glaring example of copyright infringement from a ByteDance product to date, and you must immediately shut down Seedance and implement meaningful safeguards to prevent further infringing outputs," Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Welch, D-Vt., wrote in a letter to ByteDance CEO Liang Rubo that was first obtained by CNBC. Their letter is a sign of growing concerns on Capitol Hill about how AI companies are developing and using their models and whether proper protections are in place for those who generate the materials the models train from. "Responsible global companies follow the law and respect core economic rights, including intellectual property and personal likeness protections," Blackburn and Welch wrote. They cited examples of Seedance 2.0 creations, made after the platform went live Feb. 12, that included actors Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt and the Netflix show "Stranger Things." A ByteDance spokesperson said in a statement to CNBC that "ByteDance respects intellectual property rights and we have heard the concerns regarding Seedance 2.0. We are taking steps to strengthen current safeguards as we work to prevent the unauthorized use of intellectual property and likeness by users." Lawmakers aren't the only ones concerned. Hollywood groups including the Motion Picture Association sent a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance. The Information reported that ByteDance has paused its global launch of Seedance 2.0. So far, Congress has largely taken a hands-off approach to regulating AI. Lawmakers say they do not want to create guardrails that would limit the ability of U.S. companies to innovate and remain ahead of foreign competitors. Several lawmakers said that because the industry is moving so quickly, legislation they were considering a few years ago would already be out of date and inadequate in covering advances such as agentic AI. Yet senators including Blackburn and Welch have introduced targeted bills on AI. In August, the duo unveiled a bill to help artists protect their copyrighted works from being used to train AI.

ByteDance has reportedly suspended the global rollout of its new AI video generator

A month after Seedance 2.0's launch in China sparked cease-and-desist letters from Disney and Paramount Skydance over its use of copyrighted materials, its developer ByteDance has reportedly hit pause on the release of the AI video tool in other regions. According to The Information, which spoke to two anonymous sources with knowledge of the matter, ByteDance has suspended Seedance 2.0's global rollout. Engadget has reached out to ByteDance for comment and will update this story if we hear back with more information. Seedance 2.0 caught heat from Hollywood studios almost immediately upon its release, after user-generated videos including a viral AI clip of Brad Pitt fighting Tom Cruise sparked concerns that copyrighted works were used in training the model. In February, ByteDance told the BBC that it is "taking steps to strengthen current safeguards as we work to prevent the unauthorised use of intellectual property and likeness by users." It's unclear when exactly ByteDance planned to release the tool more widely.

ByteDance's Controversial AI Video Model Reportedly on Hold Globally Due to Copyright Disputes

If you have your heart set on AI-generating some John Wick-style action scenes starring celebrities with weird voices, we have some bad news. If you've been waiting anxiously to try out ByteDance's new video model Seedance 2.0, but you don't have the necessary prerequisitesâ€"a phone number with the +86 country code and an account on a Chinese ByteDance platformâ€"it looks like you'll just have to keep waiting. According to two anonymous leakers who spoke to the Information, the global release of Seedance 2.0 is on hold amid legal action from movie studios and streaming services. When it was initially released, Seedance 2.0 appeared to have few if any protections in place to prevent users from generating videos appearing to star celebrities, copyrighted characters, and celebrities as copyrighted characters. As I noted last month, this model is just the latest of many to trigger copyright disputes that only seem to help them make a splashâ€"this time most prominently from Disney, which has a content partnership with ByteDance competitor OpenAI. Every new generative model that goes viral seems to have a particularly eyebrow-raising use case, such as the Ghibli memes that followed the release of OpenAI's GPT-4o. In the case of Seedance 2.0, that use case has largely been John Wick-style action scenes that hold together with C-minus physics and continuity (instead of the F-minus physics and continuity we've come to expect). In one famous instance, an X user posted a Seedance 2.0 video that appeared to show a knock-down-drag out between Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise. Another clip with Cruise and Pitt turned the fight into a Jeffrey Epstein reference, and was notable for drawing attention to the model's shaky grasp on celebrity voice mimicry. Deadpool writer Rhett Reese said, according to the New York Times, “For all of us who work in the industry and devoted our careers and lives to it, I just think it’s nothing short of terrifying,†adding, “I could just see it costing jobs all over the place.†A little over a week ago, a Reddit account associated with the AI cloud company Atlas Cloud provided what it claimed was some detail straight from ByteDance about the public availability of Seedance 2.0. The release was meant to be "before mid-March, but no confirmed date yet." And that account noted the same thing as the Information: that the ByteDance team is "still finalizing content restriction and copyright compliance work, so the timeline depends on that." Gizmodo reached out to ByteDance for a statement, and will update if we hear back.

The hot AI video generator that got everyone talking may now take a while to arrive

Hollywood studios reportedly raised concerns about how the model was trained One of the most talked-about AI video generators in recent weeks may not arrive as quickly as expected. According to a new report by The Information, TikTok parent ByteDance has reportedly suspended the global rollout of its Seedance 2.0 video-generation model after running into copyright disputes with major Hollywood studios and streaming platforms. Seedance 2.0, which debuted earlier this year, quickly went viral online for its ability to generate highly realistic video clips from simple prompts. The model can create short videos from text or images, making it one of the latest entrants in the fast-growing text-to-video AI race alongside tools like OpenAI's Sora and Google Veo. Why is ByteDance delaying the launch? The delay appears to be tied to growing legal pressure from the entertainment industry. According to reports, several Hollywood studios and streaming companies, including Disney, Netflix, and Paramount, raised concerns that the model may have been trained on copyrighted film and TV content without permission. Some AI-generated clips circulating online reportedly featured recognizable characters or actors from popular franchises, triggering legal warnings. Disney has reportedly sent a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance, alleging that copyrighted works were used in the model's training data and that some outputs reproduced protected intellectual property. Faced with these concerns, ByteDance has reportedly paused the planned global rollout, which had been expected around mid-March, while engineers work on safeguards to prevent unauthorized use of copyrighted material. Why did Seedance 2.0 attract so much attention? Seedance 2.0 quickly drew attention after its debut thanks to its ability to generate short cinematic videos with realistic motion, camera movement, and characters. Viral clips featuring scenes with recognizable actors and characters fueled both excitement and concern across the creative industry. The situation also reflects a growing tension in the AI space, where powerful generative tools are advancing rapidly while creators and studios question how training data is sourced. As a result, legal challenges may increasingly shape how and when these AI models reach the public.

ByteDance halts global Seedance 2.0 launch after Hollywood legal threats

ByteDance has paused plans for the global launch of its AI video model Seedance 2.0 following legal pressure from major Hollywood studios. The delay comes after viral videos generated by the model, including a clip depicting Tom Cruise fighting Brad Pitt, triggered cease-and-desist letters from multiple studios. Disney's lawyers accused ByteDance of a "virtual smash-and-grab of Disney's IP," according to The Information. The Chinese company launched Seedance 2.0 domestically in February and had scheduled a mid-March global release. Engineers and lawyers are now working to address potential legal issues before proceeding, The Information reported. The viral content drew sharp criticism from industry figures. One successful screenwriter stated that the footage meant, "It's likely over for us," referring to the threat to writers' livelihoods. ByteDance promised to implement stronger intellectual property safeguards in response to the complaints. ByteDance, best known as TikTok's parent organization, remains a minority shareholder in the platform's U.S. spinoff amid ongoing regulatory scrutiny. The company has faced previous IP disputes over AI-generated content featuring copyrighted characters.

ByteDance Pauses AI Video Launch Over Copyright Issues | PYMNTS.com

According to several news outlets, and as first reported by The Information on Saturday (March 14), the Chinese tech giant made this decision following pushback from major Hollywood studios and streaming platforms. PYMNTS has contacted ByteDance for comment but has not yet gotten a reply. ByteDance, which owns TikTok, had said in February it was taking measures to stop the unauthorized use of intellectual property on its Seedance 2.0 AI video generator. This came after studios such as Disney accused the company of using its characters to train the tool. American AI firm OpenAI has faced similar intellectual property concerns over its Sora video generation tool. Seedance's apparent abilities came to light after videos it produced went viral in China, including one showing actors Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt engaged in a fight. (It led to claims that such technology could end the filmmaking industry, though some news outlets called the clip into question, arguing it may have been created using live actors in front of a green screen.) According to the report, ByteDance had planned to make the new video model available to customers this month but has since halted that release. The company's legal team is trying to identify and resolve potential legal issues, while its engineers are installing safeguards to block the model from generating content that could violate intellectual property rules. "The rise of Seedance 2.0 also ties into a larger ecosystem shift toward multimodal AI, where the ability to blend text, visual and auditory outputs seamlessly is becoming a core differentiator among leading models," PYMNTS wrote last month. "While text-centric systems such as OpenAI's ChatGPT remain widely used, video and multimedia generation represent a rapidly growing frontier with implications for creative industries and commercial content workflows." OpenAI debuted its own text-to-video model, Sora, created to generate realistic video clips using written prompts. Sora showcased the ability to create minute-long, high-fidelity scenes with consistent characters and complex motion, an indication that video generation is shifting from experimental novelty to production-grade capability, PYMNTS wrote. At the same time, as covered here, social media platforms are reworking their products in reaction to a surge in AI-generated content. "Companies including Meta and Pinterest have begun overhauling feeds and labeling systems to more clearly distinguish between human-created and AI-generated posts, reflecting mounting pressure around transparency and trust," that report said.

Senators demand ByteDance 'immediately shut down' AI app that created...

Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Peter Welch demanded Tuesday that China-based TikTok parent ByteDance "immediately shut down" an artificial intelligence app that can use images of real people due to what they described as "glaring" copyright issues -- weeks after TikTok officially set up a joint venture to let it keep operating in the US. The Seedance app produced several alarming videos "within the first 24 hours" after an updated version went live on Feb. 12, including "a brawl between Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt that never really happened," Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Welch (D-Vt.) wrote in a letter addressed to ByteDance CEO Liang Rubo. Other examples that raised alarms included an AI-generated "rewritten" version of the ending of Netflix's hit series "Stranger Things," as well as a battle between Marvel supervillain Thanos and DC Comics superhero Superman on the surface of Mars. "This technology is the most glaring example of copyright infringement from a ByteDance product to date, and you must immediately shut down Seedance and implement meaningful safeguards to prevent further infringing outputs," the senators wrote. Copyright abuse by major tech firms has become a key point of contention on Capitol Hill, with critics alleging that creative work is being ripped off without proper credit or compensation. The senators described Seedance's alleged violations as "part of a larger trend of artificial intelligence companies stealing protected work at the expense of the creative community." The missive came after TikTok in January finalized a White House-brokered deal under which a new US entity runs the app in the States. The setup came in the wake of concerns over the video-sharing app's algorithm and the ability of the Chinese Communist Party to access user data. Seedance was built by ByteDance and originally restricted to China, with plans for a broader rollout to come, though they recently hit a legal hurdle in the US. "If ByteDance wishes to build sustainable economic ties with democratic, free market economies, it must immediately shut down Seedance 2.0 to cease the mass infringement and related harms it has perpetrated, and excise unlicensed intellectual property from its data holdings," the lawmakers said. A ByteDance representative said the company "respects intellectual property rights and we have heard the concerns regarding Seedance 2.0." "We are taking steps to strengthen current safeguards as we work to prevent the unauthorized use of intellectual property and likeness by users," the representative said in a statement. ByteDance has paused the planned global rollout of Seedance after Hollywood giants Disney and Paramount sent cease-and-desist letters to the company. Disney accused ByteDance of performing a "virtual smash-and-grab" of the company's intellectual property, including characters from the Marvel and Star Wars franchises.

ByteDance Freezes Global Launch of Seedance 2.0 After Studio Backlash

The international distribution of ByteDance's Seedance 2.0 AI video tool has been suspended due to copyright conflicts with major Hollywood studios. The AI Video Tool became a viral sensation because it could create cinematic videos from basic user input. Entertainment companies have filed legal disputes against the system since they believe the company used their protected works to train its model without permission. After Seedance 2.0 became popular online, several major studios raised immediate concerns about the software. The Walt Disney Company and Paramount Global, together with other companies, claimed that used their intellectual property to create its Artificial Intelligence system. The viral videos created a major copyright dispute, which showed how copyright laws apply to AI development through their use of Combatants and characters who resembled popular film franchises.

ByteDance puts video AI launch on hold after copyright disputes - The Information By Investing.com

Investing.com -- ByteDance has put on hold the ⁠global launch of its latest video-generation model, Seedance 2.0, after a series ⁠of copyright disputes with major Hollywood studios and streaming platforms, The Information reported ⁠on Saturday, citing ⁠two people familiar with the matter. The pause highlights growing legal and regulatory scrutiny facing AI developers, particularly around how training data is sourced. Several technology companies developing generative AI models have faced lawsuits and complaints from media companies that argue their content has been used without permission.