MPA, Disney, Netflix and others send legal letters — Seedance 2.0 rollout halted over widespread IP infringement claims

ByteDance has suspended the global launch of its latest video-generation AI model, Seedance 2.0, after Hollywood's major studios and the Motion Picture Association (MPA) fired legal warnings over large-scale copyright violations.

바이트댄스, 할리우드 저작권 분쟁으로 영상 AI 모델 글로벌 출시 중단

바이트댄스(ByteDance)가 텍스트-투-비디오 AI 모델 ‘시댄스 2.0(Seedance 2.0)’의 글로벌 출시를 전면 보류. 할리우드 주요 스튜디오와 미국영화협회(MPA)가 대규모 저작권 침해를 이유로 법적 서한 발송하고 즉각적인 서비스 중단 요구

K-EnterTech HubJung Han

The standoff represents one of the most direct collisions yet between rapidly advancing AI video technology and the entertainment industry's intellectual property frameworks.

Hyperrealistic Clips Go Viral — Hollywood Fires Back

ByteDance released Seedance 2.0 to consumers and businesses in China last month. Clips generated by the model quickly went viral on X, racking up millions of views for their strikingly realistic quality. Among the most widely shared: a rooftop brawl between Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise, and a lightsaber duel aboard a spaceship between Darth Vader and Deadpool.

The viral sensation triggered an immediate backlash from Hollywood. Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount Skydance, and Netflix were among the entertainment companies that sent legal letters demanding ByteDance take action to prevent its AI model from generating content that infringes on their copyrights.

MPA Chairman and CEO Charles Rivkin issued a forceful public statement on February 12:

"In a single day, the Chinese AI service Seedance 2.0 has engaged in unauthorized use of U.S. copyrighted works on a massive scale. By launching a service that operates without meaningful safeguards against infringement, ByteDance is disregarding well-established copyright law that protects the rights of creators and underpins millions of American jobs. ByteDance should immediately cease its infringing activity."

ByteDance did not respond to requests for comment.

Mid-March Global Rollout Abandoned

ByteDance had been targeting a mid-March global launch, planning to offer API access through its cloud platform BytePlus to startup and enterprise customers, alongside a new consumer app for users outside China. Those plans are now fully on hold, according to two people with direct knowledge of the situation who spoke to The Information.

The company's legal team is working to identify and resolve potential liabilities, while engineers are building guardrails to prevent further IP violations. In China, new content moderation software has been deployed — but paying customers have already complained that the model now frequently rejects prompts with no apparent connection to copyrighted material.

Enterprise Access Restricted — $1.45M Commitment Required

Access for enterprise customers has been sharply curtailed. According to Chinese startup founders in talks with ByteDance, usage is currently limited to content distributed within China, and prospective partners must commit to spending at least 10 million yuan ($1.45 million) just to enter contract negotiations. A more refined content review system is in development, but the revised timeline for a global launch remains unclear.

China's AI Surge Confirmed — Text-to-Video Race Intensifies

The episode underscores the rapid pace at which Chinese AI developers are closing the gap with their American counterparts. On text-to-video leaderboards, Kuaishou's Kling, Alibaba's Wan series, and Beijing-based startup PixVerse continue to trade top positions alongside Google's Veo and xAI's Grok — a competitive landscape that makes the IP dispute all the more consequential for the global AI industry.

MPA Member Studios: Netflix, Paramount Pictures, Prime Video & Amazon MGM Studios, Sony Pictures, Universal Studios, The Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros. Discovery