Okay, so Disney's not playing around when it comes to protecting its characters. It seems like ByteDance, the company behind TikTok, got a sternly worded letter from the Mouse House. Apparently, Disney thinks ByteDance's new AI tool, Seedance 2.0, is using Disney's copyrighted characters without asking nicely. I mean, can you imagine Darth Vader starring in some random AI-generated clip without Lucasfilm's okay? That's a big no-no.

According to reports, Disney is claiming that ByteDance basically used a "pirated library" of Disney characters – think Spider-Man, Peter Griffin (yeah, he's technically owned by Disney now!), and the aforementioned Vader – to train Seedance. The implication is that ByteDance acted as if Disney's intellectual property was just free-for-all clip art. And trust me, Disney does not see it that way. If it did, they wouldn't have sicced their lawyers on ByteDance.

Look, AI is the wild west right now, and everyone's trying to figure out the rules. On one hand, you've got companies like ByteDance pushing the boundaries of what's possible with AI-generated content. On the other, you have massive content creators like Disney who have spent decades building up their intellectual property and have no interest in letting anyone exploit it without permission.

It's not the first time Disney's flexed its legal muscle in the AI world, though. They've previously sent cease-and-desist letters to other AI companies for similar reasons. This suggests a pattern. Disney wants to be involved in AI but only on its terms. They even have a partnership with OpenAI where they are allowing them to use their characters. It's a very specific relationship, and one that makes it clear that Disney wants to be paid when their characters are used.