‘Blade Runner 2049’ production company sue Elon Musk and Tesla
The production company responsible for Blade Runner 2049 has sued Tesla, Elon Musk, and Warner Bros for copyright infringement. They allege that some of the AI-generated images used for the launch of Tesla’s self-driving Robotaxi were taken directly from the film.
On October 21st, Alcon said that it had previously insisted Blade Runner 2049 have nothing to do with “Tesla, X, Musk or any Musk-owned company.” In a statement, they shared they didn’t want to be affiliated with the Tesla CEO because of his alleged “massively amplified, highly politicized, capricious and arbitrary behaviour, which sometimes veers into hate speech.”
As a result, Alcon is planning on taking the parties responsible for the images to court for direct copyright infringement, vicarious copyright infringement, and false endorsement.
The lawsuit is seeking an injunction against Tesla, Elon Musk and Warner Bros, as well as “anyone working in concert with them from further copying, displaying, distributing, selling or offering to sell ‘BR2049’ or protectable element thereof in connection with Tesla or Musk, or making derivative works thereof for such purposes.”
They also state in the lawsuit that they are seeking monetary damages; however, they have not specified how much.
Additionally, Alcon highlighted that previous adverts that used imagery from Blade Runner 2049 had to pay a fee to use the imagery; Tesla and Elon Musk have allegedly not paid anything to the company.
“The financial magnitude of the misappropriation here was substantial,” they wrote in the lawsuit, “Alcon has spent decades and hundreds of millions of dollars building the ‘BR2049’ brand into the famous mark that it now is. Prior actual ‘BR2049’ contracts linking automotive brands to the Picture have had dollar price tags in the eight figures.”
It remains unclear whether Musk, Tesla, or Warner Bros. will defend the lawsuit, as neither has commented on the filing yet.
What is Tesla’s Robotaxi?
The Robotaxi was officially launched on October 10th. The car will be fully automated and was unveiled on a lot in Burbank, California. Alcon claims that Musk used AI-created images representing scenes from Blade Runner 2049 during this presentation.
The electric car company allegedly did this even though Alcon strictly said they didn’t want any involvement in the launch of the new car after being asked for their permission on October 9th. The launch was live-streamed, and as a result, the images were posted and reposted “over thousands of times with millions of total views.”
Never Miss A Scene
The Far Out Film Newsletter
All the latest film news from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.