In a cease-and-desist letter dated Saturday and addressed to ByteDance CEO Liang Rubo, Paramount Skydance alleged that the AI systems are producing content that closely replicates some of the studio’s most valuable and protected franchises. The letter, signed by Gabriel Miller, the company’s head of intellectual property, demands that ByteDance immediately halt what it described as widespread infringement and remove all offending material from its platforms.
According to the studio, AI-generated videos and images created by Seedance and Seedream contain “vivid depictions” of copyrighted and trademark-protected properties, often indistinguishable from the originals both visually and audibly. The company claims that franchises including South Park, SpongeBob SquarePants, Star Trek, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Godfather, Dora the Explorer, and Avatar: The Last Airbender have been repeatedly reproduced without authorisation.
The dispute follows a similar move by The Walt Disney Company, which sent its own cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance a day earlier. Disney alleged that the AI tools were making available what it described as a “pirated library” of its copyrighted characters from franchises such as Star Wars and Marvel Cinematic Universe, arguing that the company’s intellectual property was being treated as if it were in the public domain.
The controversy intensified after AI-generated videos produced by Seedance 2.0 went viral online, including a widely shared clip depicting actors Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt in a fabricated rooftop fight scene. Industry bodies quickly responded. The Motion Picture Association condemned ByteDance’s actions and called for an immediate cessation of what it termed infringing conduct. Performers’ union SAG-AFTRA and the Human Artistry Campaign also criticised the AI model, raising concerns about artists’ rights and digital likeness protections.
In its letter, Paramount Skydance asserted that ByteDance’s alleged infringement appears to be escalating, particularly with the release of the updated Seedance 2.0 video-generation tool, which the studio claims has led to broader dissemination of unauthorised content.
The company is demanding that ByteDance take “all necessary steps” to prevent further violations, including ensuring that Paramount-owned content is neither used to train the AI systems nor generated by them going forward. It is also seeking the removal of all infringing materials currently hosted or distributed through ByteDance’s platforms.
As of Saturday, representatives for ByteDance had not publicly responded to requests for comment.
The dispute underscores mounting legal and commercial pressure on generative AI developers, as major entertainment companies intensify efforts to protect their intellectual property in an era of rapidly advancing synthetic media technology.