Some History

=A History of Plagiarism Claims Against James Cameron=

Lauren Davis

7/07/13 10:00am

James Cameron was recently sued yet again for Avatar, the latest in a long line of plagiarism accusations against the director stretching back to Terminator. But is Cameron a serial plagiarist, or just a popular target for copyright lawsuits? 

Prog rock fantasy artist Roger Dean suing James Cameron over Avatar
Did the floating mountains and otherworldly landscapes in James Cameron’s Avatar remind you of…

There are certainly some cases (Sally Mann's in particular, and given the similarities between the openings of "Soldier" and The Terminator, likely Harlan Ellison's as well) where Cameron may well be at fault, but some of the suits that have been lodged against the director are based on rather tenuous threads. The myriad Avatar suits seem to indicate, if anything, that many of the themes that pop up in Avatar are common to a lot of stories, although a couple of the accusations, such as Eric Ryder's, may have more teeth, depending on how the evidence shakes out.

It's worth noting that these aren't the only instances in which Cameron has been accused of borrowing images and ideas; these are simply the ones in which some form of legal action was pursued. And these aren't the only lawsuits involving Cameron and his films.

Film: Terminator

Plaintiff: Harlan Ellison

Claim: Most of the information about Ellison's charges against Cameron comes from Ellison himself—so take it with whatever grains of salt you feel Ellison warrants. The way Ellison tells it, he began hearing rumblings during the production of Terminator that it was sounding a bit like his Outer Limits episode "Soldier," which Ellison had adapted from his 1957 story "Soldier From Tomorrow." Ellison claims that his requests to read the script were denied and that he wasn't invited to the critics screenings. When he managed to sneak into one of the screenings, he felt that the first few minutes of Terminator were identical to "Soldier."

If true, another aspect of Ellison's claim is more compelling. He says that he was contacted by a friend at Starlog, who said that the magazine was receiving pressure from Cameron's representatives to excise a quote from an interview Cameron gave Starlog. According to Ellison, in the original transcript of the interview, Cameron says that he got the idea for Terminator from a handful of Outer Limits episodes. Ellison also claims that another acquaintance reported to him that he'd heard Cameron boast that he'd "ripped off a couple of Harlan Ellison stories" in the writing of Terminator. (Many people have noted that, in addition to "Soldier," "Demon with a Glass Hand," another Ellison Outer Limitsepisode, bears certain similarities to Terminator.)

Result: It doesn't appear that Ellison ever filed a complaint; he says that the studio was eager to settle the case out of court. He puts the monetary settlement in the vicinity of $65,000 and now the Terminator credits include an acknowledgement of thank you to Harlan Ellison.

Edit: Just to be clear, because there has been some misunderstanding in certain quarters: It's been well reported and recorded that the producers of Terminatorsettled with Ellison and that the acknowledgment in the credits is part of that settlement. Ellison is the primary source, however, for several details of the case, notably regarding the Starlog interview.

Notes: Ellison is certainly no stranger to lawsuits, having been a plaintiff in suits against CBS Paramount Television (for his work on the original Star Trekseries), Fantagraphics (claiming he was defamed in the book Comics As Art (We Told You So)—in anecdotes about a libel lawsuit once launched against Ellison, no less), and the makers of the film In Time (until he saw the film and decided it was not, in fact, an adaptation of his story "'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman"). Cameron, for his part, continued to deny Ellison's claims and objected to the change in the Terminator credits.

Film: Terminator 2: Judgment Day

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Film: True Lies

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Film: Titanic

Plaintiff: Sally Mann

Claim: You know those sketches that show up in Jack's sketchbook? Well, some folks thought those sketches were a wee bit familiar. One person is photographer Sally Mann, who accused Cameron of copying her controversial photograph Rodney Plogger at 6:01 (child nudity at the link) for the sketchbook without her permission. Cameron has claimed that he drew the sketches himself.

Result: Cameron reportedly settled with Mann before that year's Academy Awards.

Notes: Rodney Plogger at 6:01 isn't the only photograph that allegedly turns up in Jack's sketchbook. An article in New York Magazine points to two other probable photographic inspirations: Alfred Stieglitz’s Georgia O’Keeffe, Hands, 1920 and Brassaï’s “Bijou” of Montmartre.

Series: Dark Angel Read on io9.​comFilm: Avatar (Lawsuit #1) Read on io9.​comFilm: Avatar (Lawsuit #2)

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Film: Avatar (Lawsuit #3)

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Film: Avatar (Lawsuit #4—The Interesting One)

Plaintiff: Eric Ryder

Claim: Eric Ryder's case is distinct from the other Avatar claims in that Ryder claims he was actually working with Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment on a treatment of his script, K.R.Z. 2068. According to Ryder's complaint, he spent two years from, 1996-1998, working with Lightstorm to develop "an environmentally themed 3D epic about a corporation's colonization and plundering of a distant moon's lush and wondrous natural setting, the corporation's spy sent to crush an insurrection on the distant moon among anthropomorphic, organically created beings populating that moon, and the spy's remote sensing experiences with the beings, emotional attachment to one of them in particular, and eventual spiritual transformation into a leader of the lunar beings' revolt against the corporation's mining practices." He claims that he was eventually told by Lightstorm that they would not go forward with production because no one was interested in an environmentally themed scifi film.

Result: In January, a Los Angeles Superior Court ordered Cameron to turn over any and all drafts of Ryder's K.R.Z. 2068 scripts. In a sworn statement, Cameron claims that has never met or communicated with Ryder and did not use any materials created by Ryder. The suit is ongoing.

Film: Avatar (Lawsuit #5)

Plaintiff: Gerald Morawski

Claim: Visual effects designer Gerald Morawski claims that he sold Cameron four pieces of artwork in 1991, and during their meeting, Morawski pitched his idea for a film called Guardians of Eden, which would pit an evil mining company against an indigenous tribe that lives in harmony with its rainforest home. He says that he faxed Lightstorm Entertainment a conceptual summary of Guardians of Eden and signed a confidentiality and nondisclosure agreement, but was later told that he would have to write a screenplay in order for production to move forward. Morawski never wrote a screenplay. He sued Cameron and Lightstorm for breach of contract, fraud, and negligent misrepresentation.

Result: The US District Court granted the defendants' motion for summary judgment, finding that each of the alleged similarities between Avatar and Guardians of Eden could be found in Cameron's earlier work. The timing of Cameron's meeting with Morawski and the development of Avatar was deemed "not by itself sufficient to give rise to an inference of use."

Film: Avatar (Lawsuit #6)

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Film: Avatar (Lawsuit #7)

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Film: Avatar (Lawsuit #8)

Plaintiff: Roger Dean

Claim: The latest suit against Cameron comes from visual artist Roger Dean. Dean filed a $50 million suit against Cameron on June 27, 2013, alleging that Avatar substantially copies images from Dean's fantasy paintings.

Result: This one has just been filed, so we'll have to wait and see whether a judge finds Dean's claims viable, or if it gets tossed like most of the other Avatar lawsuits. You can read our post about the similarities between Dean's artwork and Avatar here and Cameron's comment about whether a Yes album cover created by Dean was an inspiration: "It might have been... Back in my pot-smoking days."