Elon Musk Sued Over Copyright Because He Copied, Right?
ByJason P. Frank,
a Vulture writer covering comedy, theater, and music
Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos: Warner Bros., Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Elon Musk better watch out, or else giant Ana de Armas is going to go beast mode and destroy his cars. She has more power than you think, you guys. Musk is being sued again, this time by Alcon Entertainment, the company behind Blade Runner 2049, for copyright infringement, per the New York Times. The new lawsuit alleges that Musk and Tesla had been denied permission to use imagery from the film to promote the new Tesla self-driving “robotaxi” at a marketing event on October 10 but used it anyway. Where it gets hairy, however, is that the event didn’t use actual Blade Runner images. No, it used “A.I.-created images mirroring scenes from Blade Runner 2049, including one featuring a Ryan Gosling look-alike,” Alcon claims. The company further calls it “a bad-faith and intentionally malicious gambit,” according to the Times.
Look, this isn’t good, but we must admit we’re about equally offended by the name “robotaxi.” It’s just so clumsy — as if an AI were trained only on Inspector Gadget. If you’re going to let robots take over the world, can you at least be chic about it?
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