Sony sends cease and desist to ByteDance over Seedance guardrail implementation

Sony has dispatched a cease-and-desist notice to ByteDance — becoming the fifth major Hollywood entity to do so in the last week.

This action comes despite the large-scale Chinese firm publicly asserting its commitment to respecting intellectual property rights and declaring it is “actively taking measures” to enhance their adherence.

ByteDance recently launched a new iteration of its Seedance video generation model, causing significant unease among creatives and industry leaders due to its evident use of copyrighted material.

Disney and Paramount responded with legal warnings, prompting an apology from ByteDance.

Additionally, the Motion Picture Association and The Human Artistry Campaign, which includes SAG-AFTRA and the Directors Guild of America in its ranks, also criticised the platform.

“We have heard the concerns regarding Seedance 2.0,” ByteDance said in a statement to Deadline. “We are taking steps to strengthen current safeguards as we work to prevent the unauthorised use of intellectual property and likeness by users.”

However, further demand letters have been issued from Warner Bros., Netflix and on Wednesday, Sony Pictures Entertainment.

The studio’s EVP and general counsel communicated to ByteDance that “it's evident this model has been extensively trained using SPE's copyrighted materials without permission.”

The model is said to generate content that closely imitates SPE's work or uses recognisable characters and other exclusive elements owned by SPE.

Seedance 2.0 is reported to produce unauthorised replicas and derivative works of SPE’s intellectual properties.

Days following the launch of Seedance 2.0, a wave of allegedly infringing content created by the model was broadcast widely across social media.