Photo: EPAHowever, Disney sent a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance accusing the Chinese firm of using Disney characters to train and power Seedance 2.0 without permission, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters late on Sunday. Disney said ByteDance had pre-packaged Seedance with a pirated library of copyrighted characters from franchises including Star Wars and Marvel, portraying them as if they were public-domain clip art, the person said. “We are taking steps to strengthen current safeguards as we work to prevent the unauthorized use of intellectual property and likeness by users,” ByteDance said in its statement. Paramount Skydance Corp has also sent a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance, accusing the Chinese firm of engaging in “blatant infringement” of its intellectual property, Variety reported over the weekend. Disney has taken similar actions against Character.AI, demanding that the start-up immediately stop the unauthorized use of its copyrighted characters.

Source: Taipei Times February 16, 2026 17:23 UTC