Comment on Tesla, Warner Bros sued for using AI ripoff of iconic Blade Runner imagery, despite the producers having previously rejected any association between their iconic sci-fi movie and Musk or his companies
kameecoding@lemmy.world 2 months ago
ContrarianTrail@lemm.ee 2 months ago
So it would have been fine if they hadn’t asked? I don’t get your point. Like I said: I don’t think anyone denies that it’s supposed to look like it was from the movie. It’s not though. It’s similar but is not the same. I don’t see what the copyright infingement here is supposed to be. I don’t think you can own the idea of a man in a trenchcoat overlooking a city with orange filter on it.
skulblaka@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
I mean, yeah it might have been, not because that makes it okay but because of a lack of attention on the subject. Then again he also might have gotten sued after the fact like Trump with his campaign trail music he keeps using without permission.
However, Elon did ask first, and was met with the response of “no, we absolutely do not want our product associated with you or your business in any fashion.” So he then carried on to create a barely legally distinct derivative which easily calls to mind the iconic scene in question, and then name drop Blade Runner in the accompanying speech.
Imagine for a moment, you write Bill Gates and ask him if you can use his likeness for advertisement. He tells you no, absolutely not, go kick rocks. So instead you have your local AI whip you up a character - Bull Gotes, a thin, white haired, elderly, bespectacled Caucasian man who made a lot of money on his computers, which he calls Macrosoft. This might be permissible as parody, but I don’t think you’re going to win a court case if you use it in business advertising and Bill decides he has something to say about it.
ContrarianTrail@lemm.ee 2 months ago
I see what you’re saying, but I think in this case it’s different enough from the original artwork that, if this were to go through in court, it would open the floodgates for a ton of similar lawsuits and set a bad precedent. They absolutely acted in bad faith here, as it’s immediately obvious which scene they’re mimicking, but I just don’t see enough similarity for copyright infringement. It’s quite different from Trump using actual songs from artists without permission - this isn’t the actual scene from the movie.