ByteDance’s updated AI video generator, Seedance 2.5, is reportedly blocking most attempts to recreate Hollywood characters and other copyrighted material after its predecessor triggered industry anger over deepfake and imitation videos. The change matters because studios including Disney and Netflix had complained that Seedance 2.0 enabled unauthorised uses of major franchises, prompting cease-and-desist letters and wider concern over AI copyright safeguards.

Testing by AI copyright-monitoring startup VN.ai found that Seedance 2.5 blocked about 80% of copyright-related prompts and rejected every attempt to generate a video from a copyrighted image. However, researchers said the system appears to moderate completed videos rather than stop prompts in advance, which may suggest it can recognise material it was trained on; they also produced a convincing version of Shark Tale’s Oscar without naming the character or film. ByteDance said it continues to strengthen safeguards with creative communities.