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Chinese technology group ByteDance has vowed to tighten controls on its fast-growing artificial intelligence video generator, after a legal threat from entertainment powerhouse Disney.
The Beijing-based company said it "respects intellectual property rights" and is strengthening safeguards around Seedance 2.0, whose hyper-realistic clips have spread rapidly across social media in recent days.
The update follows a cease-and-desist letter in which Disney accused ByteDance of stocking the tool with a "pirated library" of characters from franchises including Marvel and Star Wars.
Lawyers for Disney alleged the app enabled the reproduction of figures such as Spider-Man and other heroes as if they were public-domain images. Seedance allows users to create short cinematic sequences from simple text prompts.
Since its launch last week, BBC monitoring has identified viral videos depicting Anakin Skywalker duelling Rey, and Spider-Man battling Captain America on New York streets.
ByteDance has not disclosed what material was used to train the model. In a statement, it said it is "taking steps to prevent the unauthorised use of intellectual property and likeness by users", but declined to detail the measures. The dispute has widened across Hollywood.
Paramount Skydance has reportedly issued its own warning, while the Motion Picture Association, whose members include Warner Bros Discovery and Netflix, demanded the platform halt what it called infringing activity. Actors' union Sag-Aftra has also criticised the software. The row comes as media groups experiment with partnerships of their own.
Last year, Disney struck a licensing agreement with OpenAI, granting access to characters from Pixar, Marvel and Star Wars for its video generator Sora.
Separately, Disney and NBCUniversal are pursuing legal action against Midjourney over alleged copyright breaches, and Disney has urged Google to limit the appearance of its creations on external AI systems.
Analysts say the confrontation underscores mounting tension between technology developers and content owners as generative AI tools become more sophisticated and more popular worldwide.
ByteDance now faces pressure to demonstrate that innovation can coexist with copyright law.
