ByteDance has reportedly paused the global rollout of its new AI video generator, Seedance 2.0, after facing copyright complaints from major film studios.
The company had hoped to introduce the tool to international users around mid-March. But those plans have now been delayed while ByteDance reviews possible legal risks connected to the system.
The issue started after AI-generated clips created with Seedance 2.0 began spreading quickly online in China. Some of those videos appeared to include well-known movie characters and actors, which raised concerns among Hollywood companies.
One of the studios that responded was The Walt Disney Company. According to reports, Disney sent a cease-and-desist letter accusing ByteDance of using copyrighted characters without permission. The studio said the AI system seemed to include characters from major franchises such as Star Wars and Marvel.
The controversy gained attention after several clips went viral. One widely shared example showed a fictional fight scene between Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt generated by the model.
ByteDance introduced Seedance 2.0 earlier this year and described it as a tool built for professional creators. The system can combine text prompts with images, audio and video to generate cinematic content. The company has said the technology could help filmmakers, advertisers and online businesses produce videos faster and at lower cost.
The model has also drawn attention across the AI industry. Some observers have compared its progress with systems developed by DeepSeek, whose AI models have been measured against those from OpenAI and Anthropic.
Interest in the technology has grown quickly. Tech leaders including Elon Musk have commented on the model’s ability to turn simple prompts into cinematic scenes.
For now, ByteDance appears focused on fixing the legal issues before moving forward with a global launch. Reports say the company’s legal team is reviewing how the system was trained, while engineers are adding safeguards to reduce the risk of generating content that could violate copyrights.
The company has not yet announced when Seedance 2.0 will be released worldwide.
