SAG-AFTRA joins the industry’s condemnation of TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, for releasing a new video model that has enabled widespread piracy online.
SAG-AFTRA Chairman Sean Astin is among those whose likeness is used in videos produced by the model Seedance 2.0. In the video, he appears as Samwise Gamgee from The Lord of the Rings and says, “Mr. Frodo, why don’t you just take the Eagles to Mount Doom?”
The performers’ union called the Seadance video, which includes scenes of Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise fighting on a rooftop, a “blatant violation.”
“SAG-AFTRA stands with the studio in condemning the blatant copyright infringement enabled by ByteDance’s new AI video model Seedance 2.0,” the union said. “Violations include the unauthorized use of members’ voices and likenesses. This is unacceptable and undermines the ability of human talent to earn a living. Seadance 2.0 ignores the fundamental principles of law, ethics, industry standards, and consent. Responsible AI development requires accountability, and that is absent here.”
Disney also sent a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance’s general counsel John Rogovin on Friday, Variety 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 series as if Disney’s coveted intellectual property were free public domain clip art.”
“ByteDance’s effective usurpation of Disney’s intellectual property is intentional, pervasive and completely unacceptable,” said David Singer, a partner at Jenner & Block.
Singer has been leading the studio’s fight against unauthorized AI video platforms, starting with a lawsuit against Midjourney last June. He also sent a cease-and-desist letter to Google regarding the unauthorized use of Disney-owned characters on Veo in December, which coincided with Disney agreeing to license its characters to OpenAI for use on the Sora 2 platform.
The Motion Picture Association also condemned ByteDance on Thursday and called on the company to immediately stop its infringing practices.
The Human Artistry Campaign, a coalition of artist rights groups affiliated with Hollywood labor unions, also spoke out against the AI model on Friday.
“The launch of Seadance 2.0 is an attack on all creators around the world,” said a spokesperson for the campaign. “Stealing the work of human creators in an attempt to replace them with AI-generated slop is destructive to our culture. Stealing is not 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 must use every legal tool at their disposal to stop this grand theft.”
Seedance appears to represent a significant advance over previous AI video platforms in combining audio and video to create a more cinematic atmosphere.
For several years, SAG-AFTRA has sought to establish guardrails around AI reproduction of actor portraits. In 2023, the union went on strike to establish the principle of “consent and compensation” for such use of high-profile actors by major studios.
The union is currently negotiating with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers for a successor agreement that builds on the previous agreement.
