Movie and television studio Alcon Entertainment filed a lawsuit Monday against Tesla, Elon Musk and Warner Bros. Discovery for allegedly using imagery from the film “Blade Runner 2049” without permission during a live-streamed Cybercab unveiling earlier this month.
The complaint, filed in Los Angeles federal court, alleges Alcon had refused a request from Warner Bros. to use images from the firm for Tesla’s Cybercab unveiling, which took place at Warner Bros.’ Burbank, Calfornia, studio lot, only for Tesla to then use images created with artificial intelligence that mirrored the movie for the event.
During the Cybercab unveiling, Musk gave a speech while a screen displayed an image of a man in a long coat overlooking an orange-tinted, ruined city for 11 seconds. The complaint states that, in addition to those 11 seconds, the video had a continued life having been shared by Musk, Tesla, X and others, resulting in “millions of total views.”
“The financial magnitude of the misappropriation here was substantial,” the …