Time-Warner pays for copyright theft.

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

They blatently stole the stories for Terminator and Matrix, then tried to hide the theft and subsequent lawsuit.

http://www.slccglobelink.com/main.cfm/include/detail/storyid/785067.html

 

[Diplo]

Interesting. Especially the fact that such a high-profile lawsuit has received so little publicity....

Some fans, are unaware of the case or they question its legitimacy, due to the fact that it has received little to no media coverage. Though the case was not made public until October of 2003, Stewart has her own explanation, as quoted at daghettotymz.com:

"The reason you have not seen any of this in the media is because Warner Brothers parent company is AOL-Time Warner... this GIANT owns 95 percent of the media... let me give you a clue as to what they own in the media business... New York Times papers/magazines, LA Times papers/magazines, People Magazine, CNN news, Extra, Celebrity Justice, Entertainment Tonight, HBO, New Line Cinema, Dreamworks, Newsweek, Village Roadshow... many, many more!... They are not going to report on themselves. They have been surpressing my case for years..."

 

[John Reynolds]

It would help explain why the sequels were such tripe

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

Even the first film seems to have been chopped up in order to try to dodge the copyright bullet:

According to court documentation, an FBI investigation discovered that more than thirty minutes had been edited from the original film, in attempt to avoid penalties for copyright infringement.

It really amazes me though - Warners could have simply paid the woman for the film rights, and the studio still would have made a massive stack of cash. I guess they are going to have to pay out a load more than if they had simply paid the author for her work.

It seems that the studio execs simply thought they were big enough to trample on this woman and threaten her with their legal rotweillers. Even so, it's taken her six years to finally get her rights.

 

[K.I.L.E.R]

Let's introduce copyright laws that mainly effect corporations.

I'm hoping the people who are in charge spend at least 20 years in prison and are fined over $2M.
If that was you or me breaking copyright laws we'd be getting sentences like I mentioned above.

 

[3dilettante]

Is there any other site running this story? I'm not getting anything anywhere, and Time Warner does not own every internet news site.

 

[Natoma]

Are we absolutely sure that this isn't a hoax? If it isn't, wow.

 

[pcchen]

There is a correction to the previous news article. Basically she has not yet won her case, just made it proceed through.

 

[Guden Oden]

Where's the Terminator correction here? I can't get to the second page of the article in case that's dealt with there, because then I have to register for some stupid reason and I'm just not going to do that.

Is she claiming she wrote the script for that movie too by any chance and James Cameron stole it? Well, in that case she's a little late to the party because Cameron 's already been sued over that flick by whatsisname that sci-fi writer who writes weird stories (though I dunno the actual merits of the case; people can come up with pretty much the same ideas independently of each other.

 

[Leto]

Guden: Philip K. Dick?

 

[_xxx_]

Nah, he wrote Blade Runner.

Edit: it was called "Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?", methinks.

 

[dreamin']

Now if the Wachowski's didn't write the script for "Bound" either that would mean they haven't done a single good movie

 

[banksie]

Guden: Philip K. Dick?

Cameron was sued by Harlan Ellison over the story 'Demon with a Glass Hand'. It was adapted into an Outer Limits teleplay as I recall which Cameron then referenced amongst staff while making Terminator.

As for this case, the pausity of evidence gives me reason to wait and see. So far I haven't seen any copy of the original script that the Wachowski brothers ripped off so it becomes very hard to judge what copyright infringement has gone on.

Wouldn't unduly surprise me though, Hollywood as an industry has been morally bankrupt for sometime.