Warner Bros. has joined a growing list of studios criticising ByteDance for copyright infringement linked to its new AI video service. The Hollywood giant has accused the Chinese technology company of enabling user-generated content featuring unauthorised depictions of its most iconic characters.
The studio’s legal team sent a letter on Tuesday to John Rogovin, ByteDance’s general counsel and former chief legal officer at Warner Bros., highlighting his previous role in protecting the copyrights of ‘Superman’ and ‘Batman’.
“These characters are the lifeblood of the company,” wrote Wayne Smith, executive vice president of legal at Warner Bros. Studios. “ByteDance is now engaged in blatant infringement of the very same properties you spent many years protecting.”
Warner Bros. has demanded that ByteDance stop training its AI on these characters and introduce safeguards to prevent further misuse.
ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, launched its AI platform Seedance 2.0 last week, claiming it represents a “substantial leap in generation quality” over previous versions. Almost immediately, social media was flooded with AI-generated clips showing Tom Cruise fighting Brad Pitt, Batman battling Spider-Man, Superman facing Thanos, and other mash-ups. Users also created alternate endings to films and TV shows, including the HBO series ‘Game of Thrones’.
The Motion Picture Association and SAG-AFTRA condemned the platform, while Disney and Paramount reportedly issued cease and desist notices last week. On Monday, ByteDance pledged to introduce additional safeguards to “prevent the unauthorised use of intellectual property and likeness by users.”
Warner Bros., however, dismissed this response, arguing that placing the blame on users misses the point. “The users are not the ones at the root cause of the infringement,” Smith wrote. “They are merely building on the foundation of infringement already laid by ByteDance as Seedance comes pre-loaded with Warner Bros. Discovery’s copyrighted characters. That was a deliberate design choice by ByteDance.”
The letter cites examples posted on X, formerly Twitter, including AI videos featuring characters from ‘The Matrix’, ‘The Lord of the Rings’, ‘Harry Potter’, ‘Rick and Morty’ and Game of Thrones. It also highlights fight sequences involving Batman, Catwoman and Superman.
While Warner Bros. acknowledges that ByteDance appears to be taking steps to restrict text prompts involving its characters, the studio questioned why such measures were not in place at the platform’s launch.
“While this is a promising indication that we may resolve this dispute business-to-business, it nonetheless begs the question why guardrails that can so quickly and easily be implemented were not present upon Seedance’s release,” the letter stated.
