The production company behind “Blade Runner 2049” filed a lawsuit Monday against Elon Musk and Tesla, accusing them of copyright infringement while promoting a new self-driving car.
In its lawsuit, Alcon Entertainment says Musk used AI-generated imagery mirroring scenes from its 2017 sci-fi film while presenting Tesla’s new autonomous Robotaxi at a marketing event earlier this month. Producers had denied his request to do so.
“He did it anyway,” the suit alleges, adding that the company denied Musk’s request due to the tech mogul’s “extreme political and social views” that occasionally veer into “hate speech.” Musk enthusiastically endorsed Donald Trump for president, appearing alongside him at a rally earlier this month, and has espoused transphobic views.
What’s great about lawsuits like this is you really only have to prove intent and they have a record of them asking for similar imagery.
The big brain move was to ask them first, thereby proving you wanted to use their IP.
If he had just faked it anyway without asking he might have got away with it.
Genius strategist.
Reminds me of Google’s thing with the Gemini name.
Google decides to use the Gemini name for their AI stuff either knowing other company has patent or whatever on that name when it comes to AI or just doing it anyway. Google asks Patent Office to give them the name, they are told no. Then some “mysterious third party” tries to buy out the other company. They figure it is Google trying to circumvent the patent, they stop contact and just sue Google.
I’m not sure if they decided on the name, saw it was taken and were like “yeah but we like the name so it’ll be fine” or if they’re genuinely stupid enough to first decide on the name and then they realize that oh shit
I hate this guy so much. Hope he gets run over by one of his shitty trucks in full self/driving mode. Best part is that they turn off FSD right before impact to absolve blame. Oh, poor guy got smooshed, but FSD wasn’t to blame.
Like the Segway guy who died by riding his Segway off a cliff
Was the Segway guy as shitty as musk?
The cliff thought as much. Why else would it yeet him like that?!
(Doesn’t sound like he was because he also held patents for an insulin pump & a wheelchair that could climb stairs so his mind was definitely working towards solving real world problems & not just reinventing public transport)
the guy who invented the segway is still alive. The guy who bought his company later drove off a cliff, though it is suspected he had a heart attack while driving
See I suspect he had the heart attack while falling off the cliff.
Musk shittiness is a high bar.
Best we can hope for is an overdose
Lolol fucking awesome
Abandoned city background + “you are now in mexico” filter + duster = owned by Hollywood.
Elon sucks but so does this lawsuit.
If they asked if they can use imagery similar to or from BR2049 then they’re clearly in the wrong, which it sounds like they did. If they just made an ad and it happened to look like it, maybe not.
At the same time, “similar works” are protected and allowed as legal. For instance the 5000 spaghetti westerns that exist, or the entire formula for 80’s slasher films. Or Ants and A Bugs Life, or Olympus Has Fallen and White House Down, or Deep Impact and Armageddon.
So there has to be some sort of line somewhere that’s a cut-off, but it might be hard to find. Musk wanted to use blade runner and was told to fuck off, so he made up his own dystopian Sci fi future scene. He most certainly aimed for the blade runner look, but was it illegal?
That’s true. I guess we have to wait for this to go through court. I would assume if they put Blade Runner in the prompt it could violate the copyright.
When the image appears on the screen, he says, “we didn’t want the blade runner future. Well, maybe that cool duster he’s wearing.” So anyone there would likely assume that the image is from Blade Runner. The intent of the image was Blade Runner.
I really, really dislike the guy, but if he didn’t actually use imagery from the film… Does this suit actually have standing?
C’mon guys, cripes. What are we doing here, feeding lawyers for the sake of feeding lawyers??
Agreed. There’s no footage used from BR2049 or even a cheap simulation of it in his promotion. And you can’t trademark simply saying the words, “Blade Runner.”
I had no idea you could copywrite scenery lol. How fucking stupid and dystopian is that?
Elon is a fucking douchebag but Jesus Christ copywrite laws are just as cancerous
They’re suing him for using vaguely cyberpunk ai generated images?
As much as it seems like Musk is trying to make a real life cyberpunk dystopia, this seems a little silly.
They’re suing him for copying scenes shot for shot from their movie after they told him explicitly not to
I just watched his presentation here. He did no such thing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVzzNof3wqU
Do you have a video that shows this?
He literally references the movie saying the title as a clearly “Blader Runner” image is on screen. Are you meaning to be obtuse or are you just really that dim?
The subject is copyright infringement. Do try to keep up.
Which is exactly what he did.
I’ll assume it’s the latter at this point.
There is nothing in Musks presentation that infringes copyright. You’re an idiot.
If Tesla (or the marketing company) asked for permission, then it was more than “vaguely”.
My interpretation is they wanted to use it, got denied, so used a more generic setting instead.
*tried to
It was still close enough that the production company feels they can win with their claim.
Desert wasn’t really a cyberpunk setting until BR 2049. Post-apocolyptic sure, MadMax had that stitched up in 1979, but not cyberpunk.
