The Warring States of NPF - The Matrix Infringed

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The Matrix Infringed

Quote:

Originally Posted by www.slccglobelink.com

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.

Stewart has confronted skepticism on all sides, much of which comes from Matrix fans, who are strangely loyal to the Wachowski Brothers. One on-line forum, entitled Matrix Explained has an entire section devoted to Stewart. Some who have researched her history and writings are open to her story. Others are suspicious and mocking. "It doesn't bother me," said Stewart in a phone interview last week, "I always knew what was true."

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..."

[Edited at shiney's request] To me, this was a smack in the face. It never really entered my mind that these movies might be plagiarized. Even though part of the story may have been ripped out of a book, I still think most of the plot was original and created by the Wachowski brothers. Still, that's a huge settlement for a copyright infringement case.

This is like what I said a while ago about writing in a vacuum. More than likely, your story will come out appearing similar to someone else's. How many books and movies have we read and seen about an alternate or false reality?

Next time, instead of just quoting a story, add some of your own input. Otherwise a thread just becomes a glorified excuse for a news outlet.

This could explain why the second two movies are completely incongruous with the first one, and why they suck and have none of the magic and goodness of the original.

In fact, as far as I'm concerned, it does, since I can't figure out how Reloaded and Revolutions followed logically from the Matrix. I never really understood the Wachowski brothers in that respect.

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To me, this was a smack in the face. It never really entered my mind that these movies might be plagiarized. Even though part of the story may have been ripped out of a book, I still think most of the plot was original and created by the Wachowski brothers. Still, that's a huge settlement for a copyright infringement case.

This is like what I said a while ago about writing in a vaccum. More than likely, your story will come out appearing similar to someone else's. How many books and movies have we read and seen about an alternate or false reality?

Now, while I generally agree that it COULD very easily be coincidence, this right here, damns the FUCK out of the Wachowski Brothers:

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In the mid-eighties Stewart had submitted her manuscript to an ad placed by the Wachowski Brothers, requesting new sci-fi works.

At a time they were looking for manuscripts for sci-fi, and she gave them hers, only to later find a movie just like it by the same folks. The chances of this being a coincidence considering that is pretty slim. Not to mention she did actually win the case, and you have people on the inside testifying against the brothers.

Of course, there have been so many sci-fi stories/books/scripts written a about the future, and robots, and whatnot, that it could still be a coincidence. Right now, I think I'm going to need more evidence to be swayed to either side...

I remember this one guy who tried to sue Pixar because he wrote a children's book about a clown fish trying to find his son. He inevitably lost the case, because Pixar brought forth evidence that they had written the script before the guy wrote the book.

The fact that Stewart won, dispite the fact the Warner Brother's probably had some uber-lawyers on their payroll is enough evidence for me.

I mean, you know that whatever movie comes out, someone tries to sue it for idea stealing or whatever...but that fact that she proved the brothers did and the judge agrees with her is insane.

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Originally Posted by Toastburner B

Still, being my stubborn self, this article doesn't actually PROVE the case, and I won't be swayed until I see some hard evidence...this is not due to any particular loyalty I feel towards the brothers Waschowski: in fact I thought their last two movies were pretty much examples of the crap they cut out of the first movie, and disposed of in theaters.

My post wasn't a joke. Have you not noticed the severe stylistic differences between the first movie and the second two? That is enough to sway me.

I read the first few pages of the original story written by Stewart. The evidence is with her, but the story doesn't look too resemblant of The Matrix. Still, I didn't read too much of it because, honestly, it wasn't a very good story. If I had trudged through the whole thing, it would probably be very likely that I'd see some resemblances. In fact, now thinking back on it, there were a few slight ones even in the beginning...

And I agree completely with the whole "Matrix sequels sucked so bad, how could they be written by the same writer?" theory. The Matrix was a completely different beast from the sequels. The style was different, the message was different, everything was different.

So we shouldn't give credit to the Wachoskis for writing The Matrix, but you still have to give them some respect for the incredible ground breaking visual style they created. Though "Bullet Time" seems kind of like a hyped-up glorified slow motion.

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'In reference to the recent article entitled "Mother of the Matrix Victorious," some information has been deemed misleading. Ms. Sophia Stewart has not yet won her case against Joel Silver, Time Warner and the Wachowski Bros. The decision on October 4th enabled Ms. Stewart to proceed with her case, as all attempts to have it dismissed were unsuccessful. Ms. Stewart's case will proceed through the Central District Court of California.'

Thanks,
The Globe Staff