‘He did it anyway’: Petulant Elon Musk rightfully sued for exploiting a beloved movie to propagate ‘hate speech’
Habitual line-stepper Elon Musk’s chronic disregard for rules and regulations has landed him in another legal battle, this time with Alcon Entertainment over unauthorized use of Blade Runner 2049 imagery during Tesla’s October 10 robotaxi presentation.
The production company filed a federal lawsuit today against Musk, Tesla, and Warner Bros. Discovery, alleging the tech mogul, who has come up with no good ideas on his own, deliberately used AI-generated imagery from their 2017 film after receiving an explicit rejection to use the actual footage.
“This was clearly all a bad faith and intentionally malicious gambit by Defendants to make the otherwise stilted and stiff content of the joint WBDI-Tesla event more attractive to the global audience and to misappropriate BR2049’s brand to help sell Teslas,” states the complaint.
During the presentation at Warner Bros.’ lot, Musk displayed AI-generated images featuring a Ryan Gosling look-alike in scenes mirroring the film’s distinctive post-apocalyptic aesthetic. When attempting to explain the unauthorized imagery, “He really had no credible reason,” according to court documents.
The lawsuit highlights how Musk’s pattern of casually flouting regulations extends beyond his automotive/space/robot ventures. Alcon’s legal team specifically cited his “massively amplified, highly politicized, capricious and arbitrary behavior” as a key reason for denying the original request. All of this is a tell-tale of Musk’s broader approach, from his battles with the SEC over Tesla stock manipulation to his dismantling of Twitter’s content moderation systems after acquiring the platform.
The timing proves particularly problematic for Alcon, at least in their view, as they negotiate automotive partnerships for their upcoming Amazon Prime series Blade Runner 2099. The company claims Musk’s actions have “muddied the waters” for these discussions. “Any prudent brand considering any Tesla partnership has to take Musk’s massively amplified, highly politicized, capricious and arbitrary behavior, which sometimes veers into hate speech, into account,” the filing emphasizes.
The case bears some similarity to Scarlett Johansson’s recent clash with OpenAI over unauthorized voice replication, highlighting we’ve arrived at a nexus point where growing, inevitable tensions between traditional media rights holders and tech companies pushing AI boundaries are coming to bear in court systems.
Alcon seeks substantial damages and an injunction, asserting that Musk “personally” knew they had denied permission yet (as he does) proceeded anyway. In the course, he demonstrated his characteristic indifference to established legal frameworks and intellectual property rights. The company is essentially suggesting that because Musk didn’t get his way, he pouted and turned into a petulant bully and did it with his arms folding like a toddler—which is par for the course.
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