Sohia Stewart, a black author wins The Matrix Copyright Infringement Case

[NewOrleans]

This little known story has met a just conclusion, as Sophia Stewart, African American author of The Matrix will finally receive her just due from the copyright infringement of her original work!!!


A six-year dispute has ended 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 presiding.\



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 an 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 aghettotymz.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 and many, many more! They are not going to report on themselves. They have been suppressing 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 to the world is about God and good and about choice, about spirituality 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. June 13th 2004. Sophia Stewart's press release read: 'The Matrix & Terminator movie franchises have made world history and have ultimately changed the way people view movies and how Hollywood does business, yet the real truth about the creator and creation of these films continue to elude the masses because the hidden secret of the matter is that these films were created and written by a Black woman...a Black woman named Sophia Stewart. But Hollywood does not want you to know this fact simply because it would change history. Also it would encourage our Black children to realize a dream and that is...nothing is impossible for them to achieve!'

"I used to TELL people that I wrote the original story "The Matrix", and they never believed me...NOW they believe me."


3 cheers for Sophia!

 

[NewOrleans]

SOPHIA , not Sohia ........Eventually I'll get editing privileges. :O

 

[Laura]

Link?

 

[knowledge_of_self]

Link?

The initial search on Google brought up...


_http://www.truthaboutmatrix.com/ (her website)
and
_http://thehiphopconsultant.com/2009/11/17/original-creator-of-matrix-terminator-wins-2-5-billion-in-lawsuit/


If this is true... which it seems to be... I'm kind of speechless.

 

[Laura]

It seems that it may not be true. Read the comments here:

http://thehiphopconsultant.com/2009/11/17/original-creator-of-matrix-terminator-wins-2-5-billion-in-lawsuit/

If it is true, it ought not to be hard to find the legal filings.


ADDED: See: http://classic-web.archive.org/web/20040704052407/http://www.daghettotymz.com/matrix/matrix.html

See: http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/matrix.asp

 

[Beau]

Link?

No mainstream coverage of this. A bunch of different blogs/websites have mentioned it, all saying pretty much the same thing as above, and all with different posting dates. A few from 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011. I'm not sure that this women ever won a lawsuit, the article above doesn't even contain any info about WHEN this occurred. If it's a six-year dispute that began in 1999, then you'd expect this lawsuit to have ended in 2005.

Snopes says it's a hoax FWIW - http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/matrix.asp

 

[Masamune]

From a review of her book The Third Eye it seems like there are only very vague similarities which are common to so many stories, such as a human savior who saves the world from enslavement.

I see only vague similarities..., September 8, 2007

This book consists of two parts: the "story" (actually more of a rough outline of an undeveloped story) and a listing of "evidence" that the creators of the Terminator and Matrix series plagiarized the book in creating their works. My view on the story portion first, as the "evidence" portion is by far the majority of the book and takes longer to review:

The basic premise is that the majority of humanity has been enslaved by an alien. A prophecy states that a savior, the chosen one, will come with divine powers to free humanity. The book is *very* short, and is obviously unfinished, a fact the author does not deny (although calling an obviously incomplete rough draft her "masterpiece" seems a bit misleading to me). The story, such as it is, is fairly interesting, and there some fairly good metaphors and philosophical leanings in it. All in all, as it stands now it's not very good. If the author finished it, it might be a fantastic story. Or it might suck. "The devil is in the details," as they say, and the true test of an author is not whether they can come up with an interesting backbone to their story; it's whether they can flesh it out with interesting, compelling characters and events that draw you in that determines whether a story is good or not. However, considering that this story has been in an unfinished state for 26 years, it seems unlikely Ms. Stewart will ever finish it.

The majority of the book consists of the author trying to prove plagiarism on the part of the creators of "The Terminator" and "The Matrix." There are copies of receipts, correspondence, and various legal documents detailing her copyright dates, court cases, etc. While I don't doubt that Ms. Stewart is telling the truth about when she wrote her story, what she fails to do is show conclusive, direct connections between her ideas and those of the two movie series.

Most of the similarities I see between "The Third Eye" and the Terminator/Matrix series are superficial, and not indicative of plagiarism. One such example is the prophecy of the coming of a savior with superhuman powers to free an enslaved humanity. I've read many books with this basic premise, and like the Matrix and Terminator movies, most had little to nothing in common with this book. Some predate it (not terribly difficult as it remained unpublished until 2006) and many predate the original copyright date of 1981.

Should Ms. Stewart win her suit against the creators of the Terminator and the Matrix, I'm interested to see if George Lucas sues her to collect his fair share. After all, Star Wars was written in 1974 and released in 1977, two years before she wrote this and four years before she copyrighted it. It has a prophecy of a savior (someone will come to bring balance to the Force) with superhuman powers (Jedi Force Push, anyone?) who, after adolescence, experiences a "spiritual awakening" in response to a stressful situation, which unleashes his latent powers. He then fights against the oppressors (the evil Empire) to free enslaved humanity. Of course, if Lucas wins his case, God might need to bring a civil suit against him because, after all, this is the basic premise of the New Testament story as well.

Most of the similarities Ms. Stewart claims are constructs common to nearly every epic story. There's a powerful entity who's enslaved most of humanity. Nearly every epic story has an evil robot/alien/really bad guy who's enslaved, or trying to enslave, an entire population, whether that population be a tribe, a country, a planet, or a galaxy. That's what makes the story *EPIC*. Nobody wants to watch a six hour series on the trials and tribulations of our intrepid hero's trip to the corner store to buy a diet coke. There's a "spiritual awakening", which either gives the hero some insight or knowledge about himself and his quest, or grants him new power and abilities. This is called the "hero's journey", and it's common to thousands of stories. From Wikipedia:

"In the monomyth, the hero starts in the ordinary world, and receives a call to enter an unusual world of strange powers and events. If the hero accepts the call to enter this strange world, the hero must face tasks and trials, and may have to face these trials alone, or may have assistance. At its most intense, the hero must survive a severe challenge, often with help earned along the journey. If the hero survives, the hero may achieve a great gift or "boon." The hero must then decide whether to return to the ordinary world with this boon. If the hero does decide to return, the hero often faces challenges on the return journey. If the hero is successful in returning, the boon or gift may be used to improve the world. The stories of Osiris, Prometheus, Moses, Buddha, and Christ, for example, follow this structure very closely."

Does this sound like a perfect description of "The Matrix"? Absolutely. Does "The Third Eye" follow this pattern as well? Sure. Does this mean "The Matrix" is a copy of "The Third Eye"? Uh, no.

To me, the only strong similarity between the two that isn't a common staple of fiction in general is the fact that Icon is blinded and golden light comes from his eyes. Neo is blinded and sees machine energy as golden light. Neo's view of the machines as luminous beings of light ties into the spiritual metaphors of the movies. Zion (the body) is filmed with a blue tint. The Matrix (the mind) is filmed with a green tint. The Machine City (the spirit) is viewed by Neo as being made of light. After Neo, the messianic savior, brings the three together, the Matrix and Zion are no longer filmed with a tint to represent that the mind, body, and spirit are no longer separate. If you've no idea what I'm talking about, go here: "http://www.wylfing.net/essays/matrix_revolutions.html". Nevertheless, it is a striking similarity. Is it enough to claim copyright infringement? I don't think so, but that's just my opinion, not a legal analysis.

One other similarity of note is the idea of the characters projecting their consciousness separately from their bodies to battle the enemy. This is certainly nowhere near as widespread as the above examples, but neither is it unheard of, especially in computer/cyberspace oriented works. The theme of telepresence, human minds directly controlling artificial bodies, is common in science fiction and has been for decades. With the advent of powerful, widely available computers, especially with the continuing development of video games as an "alternate reality", the idea of cybernetically enhanced characters battling in computer-generated worlds has become commonplace as well. Ms. Stewart certainly did not come up with these ideas, nor can she lay exclusive claim to their use.

Ms. Stewart's claim of plagiarism by the Wachowski brothers hinges on the fact that she sent them a copy of her (unpublished) manuscript in 1986 in response to an ad requesting ideas for comic strips. She never heard from them, nor did she receive her manuscript back. When "The Matrix" was released, she saw similarities between the two scripts. I'm still unsure how she thinks the creators of "The Terminator" (released in 1984, so presumably written at *least* a couple of years prior) got a copy of her *unpublished* manuscript to steal from it. If she makes that connection clear in this book, I completely missed it.

Ms. Stewart gives the strong impression in this book and flatly states in several interviews outside of it that her work was "plagiarized" because she is a black woman. In several interviews she points out various black authors who were unable to get their work made into movies. In one interview she states (regarding "The Third Eye"): "You have to understand I am very subtle with the way I write, I work on the subliminal. When I write I don't want people to be able to tell my race or gender. Look at Octavia Butler the most famous black female science fiction writer they never put her work on the big screen." In another interview regarding "The Matrix", she states: "A lot of the White fans got the connection right away. The Matrix film makes sense that a Black woman would write that." Oh yes, that's the first thing I thought as I watched The Matrix: "This HAS to have been written by a black woman." :rollseyes: Given that she mailed her manuscript to the Wachowskis, and never (to my knowledge) gives an explanation for how the creators of "The Terminator" got a copy, it seems unlikely to me that these people had any idea that she was black. Unless she included a snapshot of herself in the package, I seriously doubt they decided to "plagiarize" her work based on her race. To me, therefore, the race card is a cheap stunt and, in my mind at least, serves to weaken, rather than strengthen, her case. Even if she was plagiarized, race had nothing to do with it.

In reading the other reviews of this book, it seems that an inordinate number of reviewers claim personal friendship with Ms. Stewart; the consensus is that she is a very nice woman. I'm sure she is; however, how does that have anything to do with whether the Terminator/Matrix series is similar enough to "The Third Eye" to be copyright infringement? Similarly, I'm left scratching my head as to the intent of the reviewer claiming that the Wachowski brothers are "known transvestites." He is obviously referring to the rumor, denied by the Wachowskis, that Larry is a transvestite who is undergoing a sex change operation and likes to be called Lana. Aside from the fact that there has been no proof whatsoever offered to support this rumor, even if it is true, what in the world does this have to do with the Wachowskis possibly plagiarizing the Third Eye manuscript and this book in particular? Is it common knowledge that all transvestites are plagiarizers, and I just missed it? A couple of other reviewers point to the fact that the Wachowskis haven't had another movie with the success of the Matrix series as evidence that they obviously stole the work from Ms. Stewart. For one thing, the Matrix series is one of the highest grossing series of all time (IIRC, Star Wars is the only one that's higher). It's highly unlikely the Wachowski brothers will ever top the success of the Matrix, and it's unrealistic to expect them to. For another thing, this is hardly an effective strategy to argue Ms. Stewart's case (although it's a strategy she herself employs), as she has never published ANY other work in the 26 years since she roughed out (not published) this work, whereas the Wachowskis have completed numerous other endeavors. Again, this doesn't prove the Wachowskis didn't plagiarize, but arguing that they must have because they haven't since produced a similar work makes no sense when Ms. Stewart has thus far failed to produce a similar work to the Third Eye (or any work at all, for that matter).

 

[Beau]

I'd say if you're looking for parallels between The Matrix and other stories, start with The Invisibles, a graphic novel. It's first volume alone is incredibly similar in tone and storyline. Even Grant Morrison, the writer and creator of The Invisibles, has commented on how the Wachowskis "lifted" the material from his comic almost verbatim:

It’s really simple. The truth of that one is that design staff on The Matrix were given Invisibles collections and told to make the movie look like my books. This is a reported fact. The Wachowskis are comic book creators and fans and were fans of my work, so it’s hardly surprising. I was even contacted before the first Matrix movie was released and asked if I would contribute a story to the website.

It’s not some baffling ‘coincidence’ that so much of The Matrix is plot by plot, detail by detail, image by image, lifted from Invisibles so there shouldn’t be much controversy. The Wachowskis nicked The Invisibles and everyone in the know is well aware of this fact but of course they’re unlikely to come out and say it.

It was just too bad they deviated so far from the Invisibles philosophical template in the second and third movies because they blundered helplessly into boring Catholic theology, proving that they hadn’t HAD the ‘contact’ experience that drove The Invisibles, and they wrecked both ‘Reloaded’ and ‘Revolutions’ on the rocks of absolute incomprehension. They should have kept on stealing from me and maybe they would have wound up with something to really be proud of – a movie that could change minds and hearts and worlds.

I love the first Matrix movie which I think is a real work of cinematic genius and very timely but I’ve now heard from several people who worked on The Matrix and they’ve all confirmed that they were given Invisibles books as reference. That’s how it is. I’m not angry about it anymore, although at one time I was because they made millions from what was basically a Xerox of my work and to be honest, I would be happy with just one million so I didn’t have to work thirteen hours of every fucking day, including weekends.

In the end, I was glad they got the ideas out but very disappointed that they blew it so badly and distorted all the Gnostic transcendental aspects that made the first film so strong and potent. If they had any sense, they would have befriended me instead of pissing me off. They seem like nice boys.

 

[NewOrleans]

My apologies, I should have looked up a second source first. A friend in Chicago sent me what I posted and in my enthusiasm to post directly off her email (with no link) I didn't check it out.
AND the story was from 2009.AND apparently FALSE. :( Talk about being the last one on the bus, I didn't check it out until now, after work.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/matrix.asp

 

[Jakesully]

I think there are countless authors who wrote cyberpunk novels back in the 80's who *could* have a credible claim in regards to The Matrix. But that's kinda the problem. It's hard to tell whose ideas they were, because the ideas really were just in vogue. The early 80's was the golden age of the cyberpunk genre. The cyberpunk hero became the mythicized hero of the infant Internet.

Just read William Gibson's Neuromancer. There are SO many similarities between it and The Matrix, it awed me the first time I read it. And Gibson is the guy who coined the term "cyberspace."

_http://project.cyberpunk.ru/idb/neuromancer.html