"Don't Use It, Yet You Copy?"... Blade Runner Producer Sues Tesla

Lawsuit Filed Alleging Core Concept Theft
"Potential Brand Partnerships Also Jeopardized"

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, has been accused of using movie images without permission during the unveiling of the next-generation autonomous taxi product. The production company of the film Blade Runner 2049 has filed a lawsuit against Musk.

On the 21st (local time), U.S. daily newspapers such as The New York Times (NYT) and Variety reported that Hollywood film production company Alcon Entertainment (Alcon) filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Musk, Tesla, and Warner Bros. Discovery in the Los Angeles (LA) federal court.

Alcon is the production company of the 2017 science fiction (SF) film Blade Runner 2049. The film is also a sequel to the classic movie Blade Runner (directed by Ridley Scott), which once sparked an SF syndrome in Hollywood.

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla [Image source=Yonhap News]

The scene in question by Alcon was at the Tesla Robo-taxi unveiling event held on the 10th at the LA Warner Bros. studio. Musk is suspected of using a key image from Blade Runner 2049 without authorization while presenting materials that day. Alcon claims that before the event, Warner Bros. requested permission to allow Tesla to use the image at the event. When Alcon refused, Musk allegedly created and used a similar image through artificial intelligence (AI) instead.

In fact, Musk used an image of a man looking at a forest of skyscrapers in a wasteland during the event, which some argue overlaps with the concept of the Blade Runner series. Alcon claims that the scene where the film’s protagonist "K" (played by Ryan Gosling) surveys the LA cityscape wearing a trench coat was plagiarized.

Alcon claims that the AI-generated image that appeared during the robotaxi event plagiarized the core concept of Blade Runner 2049.
[Image source=YouTube capture]

Alcon stated, "Beyond the commercial issues, the person Musk himself is more problematic," adding, "If you do not agree with Musk’s extreme political and social views, a potential brand partnership with Tesla could become a much bigger problem."

Meanwhile, Alcon is currently collaborating with automobile brands for the production of the TV series Blade Runner 2099, which is being produced for Amazon Prime Video. The studio reportedly expressed concerns that Tesla’s unauthorized use of images could negatively affect the film brand’s image.