Alcon Entertainment is suing Tesla and Warner Bros for willful copyright circumvention

According to a piece by The Hollywood Reporter, Blade Runner 2049 producer, Alcon Entertainment has filed a lawsuit in California, arguing that Tesla and Elon Musk used AI-generated imagery to circumvent copyright protections after Alcon refused a request from Musk via Warner to use material from 'Blade Runner 2049' to promote the new Cybercab at Tesla's 'We Robot' event. According to Alcon, it did not want Blade Runner 2049 associated with Tesla or Elon Musk because of the latter's extreme political and social opinions.

During his keynote at the event, Musk displayed an AI-generated picture of a man in a trench coat overlooking the ruins of an abandoned city engulfed by a dusty, orange light. The whole thing is highly reminiscent of 'Blade Runner', so it does not seem outlandish to claim, as Alcon is doing, that the image was intended to read as a still from the movie. Musk even referenced the movie by name while the picture was on display, saying, "You know, I love Blade Runner, but I don’t know if we want that future."

Tesla organized its event in partnership with Warner which, as Alcon's domestic distributor for Blade Runner 2049, holds limited clip licensing rights which did not cover Tesla's event. Reportedly, Musk told Warner that he wanted to associate the Cybercab with Blade Runner as a promotional strategy. Musk's request led Warner to seek clearance from Alcon on the day of the event, which was denied.

The complaint names Warner Bros Digital as a facilitator of the circumvention since the We, Robot event took place in a Warner studio lot and leveraged Warner-owned infrastructure to project the infringing content. With the lawsuit filing, Alcon is seeking damages, and looking to prevent the further distribution of the AI-generated content.