{"id":475414,"date":"2026-02-18T07:35:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T07:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/475414\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T07:35:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T07:35:09","slug":"warner-bros-blasts-bytedance-for-ai-videos-of-superman-and-batman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/475414\/","title":{"rendered":"Warner Bros. Blasts ByteDance for AI Videos of Superman and Batman"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tWarner Bros.<\/a> has joined a parade of studios in blasting ByteDance<\/a> for \u201cblatant infringement\u201d on its new AI video service, accusing the Chinese company of facilitating user-generated knockoffs of its iconic characters.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe studio\u2019s legal counsel fired off a letter on Tuesday to John Rogovin, the general counsel of ByteDance who happens to have previously worked as general counsel at Warner Bros. The letter takes note of Rogovin\u2019s prior service in defense of the copyrights of Superman<\/a> and Batman<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThese characters are the lifeblood of the company,\u201d wrote Wayne Smith, the executive VP of legal at Warner Bros. Studios. \u201cByteDance is now engaged in blatant infringement of the very same properties you spent many years protecting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWarner Bros. demanded that ByteDance cease training on its characters and implement guardrails to prevent further infringement.<\/p>\n

\n\tByteDance, the owner of TikTok, released Seedance<\/a> 2.0 last week, announcing it represents a \u201csubstantial leap in generation quality\u201d over the prior versions. Within days, social media sites were flooded with cinematic-looking clips of Tom Cruise fighting Brad Pitt, Batman fighting Spider-Man, Superman fighting Thanos, and other permutations.<\/p>\n

\n\tUsers also posted \u201calternate endings\u201d to films and TV shows, including one of the HBO series \u201cGame of Thrones<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Motion Picture Association and SAG-AFTRA quickly denounced the new platform, while Disney and Paramount sent cease and desist letters last week. On Monday, ByteDance pledged<\/a> to implement additional safeguards \u201cas we work to prevent the unauthorised use of intellectual property and likeness by users.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThat promise did not satisfy Warner Bros., which said in its letter that the focus on users is misplaced.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201c[T]he users are not the ones at the root cause of the infringement,\u201d Smith wrote. \u201cThey are merely building on the foundation of infringement already laid by ByteDance as Seedance comes pre-loaded with Warner Bros. Discovery\u2019s copyrighted characters. That was a deliberate design choice by ByteDance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe letter cites posts on X, formerly Twitter, that include Seedance videos of characters from \u201cThe Matrix,\u201d \u201cThe Lord of the Rings,\u201d \u201cHarry Potter,\u201d \u201cRick and Morty,\u201d and \u201cGame of Thrones.\u201d It also cites fight scenes involving Batman, Catwoman, and Superman.<\/p>\n

\n\tWarner Bros. acknowledges that ByteDance appears to be taking steps to block text prompts involving its characters.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhile this is a promising indication that we may resolve this dispute business to business, it nonetheless begs the question why guardrails that can so quickly and easily be implemented were not present upon Seedance\u2019s release,\u201d the letter states.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Warner Bros. has joined a parade of studios in blasting ByteDance for \u201cblatant infringement\u201d on its new AI…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":475415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[20486,17758,88,52585,206,216815,209,5251],"class_list":{"0":"post-475414","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-batman","9":"tag-bytedance","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-game-of-thrones","12":"tag-movies","13":"tag-seedance","14":"tag-superman","15":"tag-warner-bros"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}