{"id":676148,"date":"2026-11-05T22:28:09","date_gmt":"2026-11-05T22:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/676148\/"},"modified":"2026-11-05T22:28:09","modified_gmt":"2026-11-05T22:28:09","slug":"blade-runner-2049-producer-settles-ai-lawsuit-against-warner-bros","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/676148\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Blade Runner 2049\u2019 Producer Settles AI Lawsuit Against Warner Bros."},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tA production company for Blade Runner 2049 suing Tesla<\/a> for using images from the movie to create artificial intelligence-generated promotional material has settled a related claim against Warner Bros. Discovery, which was accused of facilitating the copyright infringement.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe production company, Alcon Entertainment<\/a>, and Warner Bros. Discovery told the court of a deal to resolve the case. Terms of the agreement weren\u2019t disclosed. \u201cAlcon and WBD have reached a settlement,\u201d the filing said.<\/p>\n

\n\tAlcon continues to pursue the lawsuit against Tesla and Elon Musk. Tesla\u2019s partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery to promote its robotaxi at a glitzy unveiling, which was done from a studio lot in 2024, sparked the case. At the presentation, Musk reached the stage in what he called a \u201ccybercab\u201d before showing an image of a male figure wearing a trench coat who\u2019s surveying the abandoned ruins of a city bathed in a misty, orange light.<\/p>\n

\n\tAlcon alleged that the image was intended to be understood as an actual still from Blade Runner 2049\u2018s sequence of Ryan Gosling\u2019s character exploring a ruined Las Vegas. It said that it doesn\u2019t want the movie to be affiliated with Musk because of his political and social views, pointing to ongoing efforts with potential partners for an upcoming TV series.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe production company brought claims against Warner Bros. Discovery for direct and contributory copyright infringement, which accounts for knowingly helping another party commit copyright infringement. The former claim was ultimately dismissed, with the court finding that the studio wasn\u2019t responsible for overseeing Tesla\u2019s work in relation to the presentation.<\/p>\n

\n\tLawyers for Alcon and Warner Bros. Discovery moved to dismiss claims against the studio in September. The companies didn\u2019t immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe case raises the novel question of whether the creation of a visual by an AI image generator by copying a portion of a copyrighted work without a license constitutes copyright infringement. Tesla and Musk have argued that the practice constitutes fair use, the legal doctrine permitting the use of copyrighted works without a license. They\u2019ve stressed that Musk utilized the image from Blade Runner 2049 to emphasize the value of autonomous vehicles by criticizing the \u201cdark and dismal\u201d dystopian future depicted in the promotional materials.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI believe we want that duster he\u2019s wearing, but not the, uh, not the bleak apocalypse,\u201d Musk said at the presentation.<\/p>\n

\n\tWarner Bros. Discovery and Alcon didn\u2019t immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A production company for Blade Runner 2049 suing Tesla for using images from the movie to create artificial…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":676149,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[20439,93,61,60,270,1188],"class_list":["post-676148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-alcon-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-movies","tag-tesla"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=676148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/676149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=676148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=676148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=676148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}