ByteDance has put the global launch of Seedance 2.0 on hold following a series of copyright disputes with major Hollywood studios, according to a report from The Information.

What Happened

Disney sent a cease-and-desist letter last month accusing ByteDance of pre-packaging Seedance 2.0 with a library of copyrighted characters from franchises including Star Wars and Marvel — treating them, Disney said, as if they were public-domain clip art. Paramount Skydance followed with its own cease-and-desist. The legal trouble was triggered in part by a viral clip generated with the model showing AI versions of Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise in a fight scene, which racked up thousands of shares on X.

ByteDance had originally planned to roll out Seedance 2.0 globally by mid-March. The company officially launched the model in February and positioned it as a professional tool for film, e-commerce, and advertising, touting its ability to process text, images, audio, and video simultaneously.

Where It Stands

According to two sources cited by The Information, ByteDance's legal team is working to identify and resolve outstanding IP issues while engineers add safeguards to prevent further copyright violations. The company previously told the BBC it was "taking steps to strengthen current safeguards."

Seedance 2.0 had drawn comparisons to DeepSeek for its cinematic output quality, with Elon Musk among those who praised its ability to generate storylines from minimal prompts. The global suspension marks a significant setback for ByteDance's ambitions to compete with Sora and other Western AI video platforms.

ByteDance did not respond to requests for comment.