'Terminator 2' shape-shifting copyright claim moves forward

Cameron is accused of basing his shape-shifting T-1000, the villain of the movie, on a character created in 1987 by Australian filmmakers Filia and Constantinous Kourtis.

The couple allege that they developed a half-man, half-bull character, which could transform itself into various human and inanimate forms, for the title role of a movie project entitled “The Minotaur”.

They asked scriptwriter William Green to write the screenplay, which he did. But the screenplay was later seen by James Cameron, say the Kourtises, who accuse the director of using the character concept in the 1991 hit starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.

According to the Associated Press, William Green sued Cameron for copyright infringement in 1993 but the suit failed, with the court finding that the two characters were not substantially similar.

However, the Kourtises also took action, first establishing in an Australian court in 1988 that the copyright in the screenplay belonged to them, not Green. They then sued Cameron in a US court, only to have the case dismissed because of the earlier unsuccessful action by Green.

The Kourtises appealed and last week the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that the case could go ahead.

The Court of Appeals said Kourtises were under no obligation to intervene in the earlier action “and they are free to pursue their copyright infringement claim in this suit because they were neither parties to the Green case nor in privity [a contractual relationship] with a party.”