Did WB steal The Matrix and Terminator?

[Reverend Jax]

From herer.

 

Seems she will be recieve as-of-yet-to-be-announced damages. There were several articles in different place about this, but all of them seemed to be full of racist undertones ("A black woman wrote the Matrix? Since when can black people, and women for that matter, read, let alone write?"). This one only mentions that she black because a) there have been accusation by some that this was a race thing and b) there is a book (the article fails to mention what book) that says of the Greek Goddess Sophia, "The black goddess is the mistress of web creation spun in her divine matrix."

 

Anyway, read away and post your thoughts....

 

"Mother of the Matrix" Victorious

Posted by on December 6, 2004 at 10:46 PM  (printer friendly)

 

 

http://www.slccglobelink.com/news/2004/10/...us-785067.shtml

 

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..."

 

Fans who have taken Stewart's allegations seriously, have found eerie mythological parallels, which seem significant in a case that revolves around the highly metaphorical and symbolic Matrix series. Sophia, the greek goddess of wisdom has been referenced many times in speculation about Stewart. In one book about the Goddess Sophia, it reads, "The black goddess is the mistress of web creation spun in her divine matrix."

 

Although there have been outside implications as to racial injustice (Stewart is African American), she does not feel that this is the case. "This is all about the Benjamins," said Stewart. "It's not about money with me. It's about justice."

 

Stewart's future plans involve a record label, entitled Popsilk Records, and a motion picture production company, All Eyez On Me, in reference to God. "I wrote The Third Eye to wake people up, to remind them why God put them here. There's more to life than money," said Stewart. "My whole message to the world is about God and good and about choice, about spirituality prevailing over 'technocracy'."

 

If Stewart represents spirituality, then she truly has prevailed over the "technocracy" represented in both the Terminator and the Matrix, and now, ironically, by their supposed creators.

 

Stewart is currently having discussions with CBS about a possible exclusive story and has several media engagements in the near future to nationally publicize her victory.

[daytripper]

Not the first time something like this happened, me on a more personal level. While in highschool Image comics, the hottest thing at the time since buttered toast, was inviting creative artists and writers to submit thier works. At the time Image was pushing 'let the artist own the trademark' movement. (Spawn issue #10). Never heard back from them, but then similiar content like the ones I submitted started appearing on thier comics. After reading through copyright laws in the downtown library, I finally came to realize that it was a very naive move on my behalf, and legal on thiers. This was at the time Eric Larson (I will forever hate that bastard), and other creatively handicapped artists/writers started realeasing 3-4 different titles a month (June '94). Be careful who you trust.

[La Lindsay]

or just send in your material to whoever and make yourself copies of your work and mail them to yourself and don't open them.

[Jumbie]

First off, If Fox had a ahold of this story they would NEVER let it rest. Warner isn't that powerful.

 

I only managed to find ONE semi legitimate source on the net for this story:

 

http://www.slweekly.com/editorial/2005/city_3_2005-01-20.cfm

 

NOTE THE DATE: That quote Jack's posted says the case was already decided as of Dec 6th. Yet,t his article is Jan 20th 2005 and mentions NOTHING about a decision. As far as I can tell the case is still pending.

 

I'm gonna go do more researcdh though. If this is a fakeit should be killed off. If it's not, then the idea that Warner has killed this story so effectively is scary as hell.

[Jumbie]

Alright, here it is from a source I trust 99%, Wikipedia. It explains everything including the date mixup.

On October 4, 2004, a California court granted Sophia Stewart leave to continue her case against Warner Brothers and the Wachowski Brothers [2] [3]. The case was filed by Stewart on April 24, 2003 [4]. Stewart claims that the story of the Matrix was based on a manuscript she wrote entitled "The Third Eye" which she allegedly submitted to the Wachowskis in response to an advert. Heavily-publicized accounts misreported the October 4th decision as Stewart winning her lawsuit, thus proving the misdeeds of Warner Brothers and the Wachowskis, rather than simply winning permission to continue with the case.

 

Some of the documents related to the case are online, including extracts from Stewart's manuscript and character descriptions for "The Third Eye". Note that some irreverent responses and some irrelevant material are included; not all of the material in the site is in the case, nor does all the material in the case appear on the site. For example, there are two copies of images from The Matrix Comics: Volume 1, documents sent to Stewart in response to a request for the FBI's files on her, and images of IMDB user comments on the unrelated 1993 Canadian TV series "Matrix".

 

The case also targets the producers of the Terminator franchise, although the details of her grievance have not been elaborated in that case.

 

The wikipedia entry on the matrix is impressive BTW check out the whole thing here:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Matrix#So...wart_legal_case