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  • SUNDAY DECEMBER 5 2004 10:05 PM

Makers of "Matrix" and "Terminator" sued for copyright infringment, and lost!

Submitted by Motionboy

Edited by Sean

It seems the Wachowski bros couldnt come up for the crap storyline of matrix by themselves!

"Monday, October 4th 2004 ended a six-year dispute involving Sophia Stewart, the Wachowski Brothers, Joel Silver and Warner Brothers. Stewart's allegations, involving copyright infringement and racketeering, were received and acknowledged by the Central District of California, Judge Margaret Morrow residing.

Stewart, a New Yorker who has resided in Salt Lake City for the past five years, will recover damages from the films, The Matrix I, II and III, as well as The Terminator and its sequels. She will soon receive one of the biggest payoffs in the history of Hollywood, as the gross receipts of both films and their sequels total over 2.5 billion dollars.

Stewart filed her case in 1999, after viewing the Matrix, which she felt had been based on her manuscript, "The Third Eye," copyrighted in 1981. In the mid-eighties Stewart had submitted her manuscript to an ad placed by the Wachowski Brothers, requesting new sci-fi works.

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. The investigation also stated that "credible witnesses employed at Warner Brothers came forward, claiming that the executives and lawyers had full knowledge that the work in question did not belong to the Wachowski Brothers." These witnesses claimed to have seen Stewart's original work and that it had been "often used during preparation of the motion pictures."
The defendants tried, on several occasions, to have Stewart's case dismissed, without success."

full story here:

http://www.slccglobelink.com/main.c...yid/785067.html

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Comments
lostarchitect

lostarchitect

Brooklyn, NY
January 2004

DEC 05, 2004 10:39 PM

well, i hope "the third eye" contained better dialogue than "the matrix", because UGH.

druhol

druhol

Loomis, CA
January 2004

DEC 05, 2004 10:45 PM

lostarchitect said:
well, i hope "the third eye" contained better dialogue than "the matrix", because UGH.



It'd almost have to.

Cigarette

Cigarette

Cleveland, OH
April 2004

DEC 05, 2004 10:47 PM

Derivation said:

Cigarette said:
People that there was something original about the Matrix?



Huh?

"People, that there was something original about the Matrix, come on!"

Better?



Fanks. smile Actually, "People thought there was something original about the Matrix?"


It's late.


That's no excuse, but it is.

gosharkz

gosharkz

San Francisco, CA
August 2002

DEC 05, 2004 10:52 PM

Good for her. I like all three movies althoguh the second was not as good as the other two. I dont really care who wrote it, but she should get fair compensation.

lostarchitect

lostarchitect

Brooklyn, NY
January 2004

DEC 05, 2004 11:02 PM

druhol said:

lostarchitect said:
well, i hope "the third eye" contained better dialogue than "the matrix", because UGH.



It'd almost have to.




i just read an excerpt.

it may even be worse.

eeek

docsmith

docsmith

Laramie, WY
March 2004

DEC 05, 2004 11:06 PM

normally I think people who sue are assholes just looking for a buck. but the legitimate ones that win rock.

saritalr

saritalr

Mexico
December 2003

DEC 05, 2004 11:09 PM

that is so lame that they would try and blatently rip off someone's ideas like that. i mean... its not like they werent making enough money off of it... had they just shared the credit at first there would have been plenty of money and credit to go around

thats just sick. what assholes.

elanmars

elanmars

New Orleans, LA
April 2004

DEC 05, 2004 11:11 PM

well, everyone's talking about matrix but no one is saying shit about the terminator movies...

so yeah, what's THAT all about?

thanks.

and i couldn't go to the second page in the link. bah.

James88

James88

West Chester, PA
February 2003

DEC 05, 2004 11:12 PM

takakoshimizu said:
The second and third matrix movies were quite honestly garbage.



I agree, but I think there was about 15 minutes of action in the second one which saved it from being complete crap. The Merovingian and highway sequence was at least entertaining.

OpticNerve

OpticNerve

Arlington, MA
November 2003

DEC 05, 2004 11:18 PM

So that explains why the first one was great, and the sequels not even good enough to be shat on.

Trucker_Fiction

Trucker_Fiction

Normal, IL
December 2003

DEC 05, 2004 11:20 PM

good for her

Sivart

Sivart

Saskatoon, SK
June 2004

DEC 05, 2004 11:48 PM

elanmars said:
well, everyone's talking about matrix but no one is saying shit about the terminator movies...

so yeah, what's THAT all about?



you didn't notice any similarities between the terminator and matrix stories? it's not much of a stretch to picture the terminator movies being the back story for the matrix.

Keenan

Keenan

Columbus, OH
July 2004

DEC 06, 2004 12:03 AM

Wow. Can't believe so many people hate the Matrix sequels. Its one of the best trilogies of our time. Even better than the LOTR trilogy. If anything should be shat upon, its Terminator 3 puke

actionverb

actionverb

Portland, OR
August 2004

DEC 06, 2004 12:06 AM

the second and third films were, hopefully, true to the script if nothing else- the story was apparently supposed to be a tragedy, and if as many vacuous Bill&Ted viewers who didn't understand anything more than the explosions in the first movie plowed through the second two, it's no surprise that "nobody liked them". You go expecting a happy ending, you're going to be let down sometimes.

I was particularly obsessed with the first movie, so the second two got a free pass of sorts- I wanted to know how the story 'ended', but that it wasn't that great didn't matter. The first movie was brilliant. The plot and characters were set- there would be no 'surprises' like in the first.

To find out that the W bros. ripped off the woman who gave them the idea sucks. I will have to brood over how I feel about that.

The truth is, if Time/Warner/jerkfest is as huge and powerful as everyone says, she will probably never see any of that money.

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