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👨⚖️ Hollywood Unites Against ByteDance
A full‑blown legal storm has hit the owner of TikTok. Following Disney, Paramount Skydance has demanded that ByteDance stop the unlawful use of its intellectual property in the Seedance (video) and Seedream (image) AI platforms.
The companies say ByteDance’s AI tools are using iconic characters (Star Wars, Marvel, SpongeBob SquarePants, Star Trek, South Park, and others) as if they were free clip art.
The trigger was a wave of viral clips generated by the new Seedance 2.0 model, including a video in which Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt fight on a rooftop — created by the neural network with no rights to use the actors’ likenesses.
The actors’ union SAG‑AFTRA and the Motion Picture Association (MPA) have already condemned ByteDance’s actions, calling them “deliberate theft.”
ByteDance responded cautiously, promising to “strengthen safeguards,” but legal letters have already been sent, and Hollywood is gearing up for a serious courtroom battle over copyright in the age of AI.
