A lawsuit filed by a production company for the film Blade Runner 2049 against Elon Musk’s Tesla is set to go ahead.
As we reported last year, Alcon Entertainment said in its lawsuit that Musk used AI-generated imagery mirroring scenes from its 2017 sci-fi film while presenting Tesla’s new autonomous Robotaxi at a marketing event on 10 October. And the snag is that producers had denied his request to do so.
“He did it anyway,” the suit alleges, adding that the company did not want to be linked to Musk or his companies.
"Any prudent brand considering any Tesla partnership has to take Musk’s massively amplified, highly politicised, capricious and arbitrary behaviour, which sometimes veers into hate speech, into account," it added.
It also alleged that Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) facilitated the partnership.
Earlier this week, a court pointed to Tesla’s attempt to get permission to use Blade Runner 2049 for its event, which was denied just hours before the presentation was set to begin.
“Several similarities” between the promotional materials that Tesla used and stills from the movie that were allegedly infringed upon were also highlighted.
“Given the tight timeframe Musk and Tesla were working with in light of their last-minute request – and the resulting last-minute denial – to make use of BR2049, it is not at all implausible for the plaintiff to allege on information-and-belief that they made use of an AI image-generator to come up with the finished product,” said US District Judge George Wu.
Although most copyright claims against Tesla were allowed to proceed, those against WBD were dismissed - except one for contributory infringement, which accused the studio of inducing the alleged misconduct.
The court also agreed that the company wasn’t responsible for overseeing Tesla’s work in relation to the presentation, adding: “There is nothing indicating that Warner had such a supervisory/controlling position or role vis a vis Tesla and Musk.”
