SAG-AFTRA is joining the industry condemnation of ByteDance, the Chinese owner of TikTok, for releasing a new video model that has enabled widespread copyright infringement online.
SAG-AFTRA President Sean Astin is among those whose likeness has been used in videos generated by the model, Seedance 2.0. In the video, he appears in the role of Samwise Gamgee from “The Lord of the Rings,” saying “Mr. Frodo, why don’t we just take the Eagles straight to Mount Doom?”
The performers’ union called the Seedance videos — which also include Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise fighting on a rooftop, among many others — “blatant infringement.”
“SAG-AFTRA stands with the studios in condemning the blatant infringement enabled by ByteDance’s new AI video model Seedance 2.0,” the union said. “The infringement includes the unauthorized use of our members’ voices and likenesses. This is unacceptable and undercuts the ability of human talent to earn a livelihood. Seedance 2.0 disregards law, ethics, industry standards and basic principles of consent. Responsible AI development demands responsibility, and that is nonexistent here.”
Disney also sent a cease and desist letter to ByteDance general counsel John Rogovin on Friday, Variety has confirmed. The letter, first reported by Axios, accuses the company of making available “a pirated library of Disney’s copyrighted characters from Star Wars, Marvel, and other Disney franchises, as if Disney’s coveted intellectual property were free public domain clip art.”
“ByteDance’s virtual smash-and-grab of Disney’s IP is willful, pervasive, and totally unacceptable,” wrote David Singer, a partner at Jenner & Block.
Singer has led the studio’s fight against unlicensed AI video platforms, starting with a lawsuit last June against Midjourney. He also sent a cease and desist letter to Google in December over unauthorized use of Disney-owned characters on Veo, which coincided with Disney’s agreement to license its characters to OpenAI for use on the Sora 2 platform.
The Motion Picture Association also condemned ByteDance on Thursday, calling on the company to immediately cease its infringing conduct.
The Human Artistry Campaign, a coalition of artists’ rights groups affiliated with the Hollywood unions, also spoke out against the AI model on Friday.
“The launch of Seedance 2.0 is an attack on every creator around the world,” a campaign spokesperson stated. “Stealing human creators’ work in an attempt to replace them with AI generated slop is destructive to our culture: stealing isn’t innovation. These unauthorized deepfakes and voice clones of actors violate the most basic aspects of personal autonomy and should be deeply concerning to everyone. Authorities should use every legal tool at their disposal to stop this wholesale theft.”
Seedance appears to mark a significant advance over previous AI video platforms, in that it combines audio and video to create a more cinematic feel.
SAG-AFTRA has sought for several years to establish guardrails around AI replication of actors’ likenesses. In 2023, the union went on strike to establish the principle of “consent and compensation” for any such use of a recognizable actor by the major studios.
The union is currently in the midst of negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers on a successor agreement that would build on the previous deal.
