The complaint

EVOX Productions LLC v. ByteDance Inc., No. 5:26-cv-06428 (C.D. Cal.), was filed October 29, 2026 (119 pages, an 18-page complaint followed by Exhibit A). The plaintiff, EVOX Productions LLC, is a Delaware limited liability company with its principal place of business in Chino, California. The defendants are ByteDance Ltd., a Cayman Islands company that the complaint says has substantial business operations in California; ByteDance Inc., which the complaint describes as organized under Delaware law and registered to do business in California; and Does 1 through 10. EVOX says it is informed and believes that ByteDance Ltd. is the corporate parent of ByteDance Inc. The complaint refers to the two companies together as ByteDance. EVOX demands a jury trial. (Compl. caption; paras. 11 to 15; jury demand.)

The works

The complaint describes EVOX as an automobile photographer for over 30 years that has built a library of studio-style images of several thousand vehicle makes and models, adding images of about 500 new vehicles each year. It alleges EVOX owns the copyrights in over two million digital photographs and has registered over one million of them, licenses its library to the automobile industry, and licenses individual images through EvoxStock.com, a website owned by an EVOX affiliate, for fees that can exceed $1,300 per image. It alleges that each image reflects creative choices such as framing and vehicle angle, wheel position, lens and camera height, lighting, a white cyclorama background, and soft drop shadows. Exhibit A lists the 7,095 images at issue with their registration numbers, which span 860 VA registrations. (Compl. paras. 17 to 18, 24 to 36, 38; Ex. A.)

What the complaint alleges

The complaint alleges that on or about April 10, 2026, a review of EVOX's server logs showed that ByteDance had accessed the EvoxStock.com servers without authorization and copied 7,095 EVOX images without a license. EVOX says it is informed and believes that ByteDance used the images to train Seedream, its image generator that creates images from users' text prompts, and that ByteDance has copied EVOX images from other online sources as well. It cites ByteDance's online description of Seedream 4.0, which the complaint says refers to "HTML-based data retrieval" to construct "high-quality editing data pairs," as support for that belief. (Compl. paras. 20 to 22, 38 to 50.)

The complaint presents side-by-side comparisons of three EVOX images (a 2021 Audi Sportback Premium Plus, a 2021 Audi TT Coupe, and a 2021 Chevrolet Silverado) with images it says Seedream Model 4.5 generated from text prompts, and alleges that Seedream generates images nearly identical to EVOX's by replicating their expressive elements. It alleges that Seedream itself is a derivative work of the training images, saying it is informed and believes that their expressive elements are reduced to model weights, and alleges that Seedream's vehicle images are derivatives of EVOX images, and says it is informed and believes that in some cases they are effectively reproductions. It alleges EVOX invested about $56 million in its library and says it is informed and believes that Seedream can replicate an EVOX image for a few cents and that ByteDance profits by charging subscription fees for Seedream. (Compl. paras. 52 to 72.)

Claims and relief

  • Count One, direct copyright infringement under 17 U.S.C. 106 and 501, by EVOX against the defendants. It alleges ByteDance infringed by downloading the images from the EvoxStock.com servers; says EVOX is informed and believes that ByteDance repeatedly reproduced the images to train Seedream and that Seedream is an unauthorized derivative work; alleges that Seedream's outputs are reproductions or unauthorized derivative works; and alleges the infringement was willful. (Compl. paras. 76 to 89.)
  • Count Two, contributory copyright infringement under 17 U.S.C. 501, by EVOX against the defendants, pleaded to the extent ByteDance claims Seedream users are responsible for infringing EVOX images. It alleges ByteDance knew or should have known that users would generate copies and derivatives of EVOX images, induced or materially contributed to that infringement, and has the ability to prevent it, and says EVOX is informed and believes that ByteDance chose not to prohibit it because it earns subscription revenue. (Compl. paras. 90 to 96.)

The prayer seeks maximum statutory damages for each copyrighted work infringed, or other proper amounts, under 17 U.S.C. 504(c), or alternatively, at EVOX's election, damages or profits under 17 U.S.C. 504(b) for each separate infringement; pre-judgment and post-judgment interest; costs, including reasonable attorney's fees, under 17 U.S.C. 505; and other relief. (Compl. prayer, paras. 1 to 4.)