Disney have issued TikTok owner ByteDance with a cease and desist following a slew of AI generated videos hitting social media.
The videos prominently show Disney-owned characters such as Darth Vader, Rey Skywalker, Spider-Man and Thanos created by users with the Chinese firm’s new Seedance 2.0 model. Actor likeness has also been reproduced without consent. This development has disturbed studios, unions, writers, actors and fans.
A day or so after Seedance 2.0’s launch and emerging clips on social media, Disney have filed legally against ByteDance per Axios. A cease and desist letter was delivered to the company with claims of the model containing “a pirated library of Disney’s copyrighted characters from Star Wars, Marvel, and other Disney franchises”. Darth Vader and Grogu were named as specific characters being used in the service.
ByteDance’s Response
Since then, the BBC have been given a statement from ByteDance who has addressed the ordeal. The technology company said they do respect IP and “have heard the concerns regarding Seedance 2.0.” Following this feedback, ByteDance claim they will be “taking steps to strengthen current safeguards as we work to prevent the unauthorised use of intellectual property and likeness by users.” It is unknown what preventive measures will be taken.
Last month, Disney revealed they had invested in Chat-GPT make OpenAI. An agreement between the two companies include Disney licensing some of their characters such as Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker for Open AI’s Sora video model. There will be AI-generated content coming to Disney+ in the future too.
In related news, YouTube are continuing to terminate channels creating similar content. Several dedicated channels that make AI-generated videos with Star Wars content have been removed in the past few days. Whilst they are not acting on behalf of other companies and enforcing copyright rules, they are doing it ahead of any potential legal issues.
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