Avatar director wins lawsuit for plagiarism

Director and producer James Cameron has won again, after the blockbuster Avatar was sued for copyright infringement, stealing other people's ideas.

New York District Court Judge Jesse Furman said the copyright infringement lawsuit was filed by artist William Roger Dean, who claimed that the surface of the planet Pandora and the creatures that live on it were inspired by his artwork.

Creatures on the planet Pandora

Dean is now known for illustrating album covers for the bands Yes and Asia. In a ruling issued on September 17, Furman called the attempt to draw similarities between Dean's work and images from Avatar "misguided." The judge noted that many of the Avatar images in the lawsuit were not taken directly from the film, but from books about the film.

Dean sued Cameron, his studio Lightstorm Entertainment, and 20th Century Fox, seeking $50 million in damages. However, Furman ruled in favor of the defendants.

"Plaintiffs cannot show any substantial similarity between Avatar and Plaintiffs' (copyrighted) works of art," Furman said.

This is the fifth lawsuit in less than two years over the Avatar copyright. Several similar lawsuits have been dismissed, including claims by Emil Malak that Avatar infringed on his 1998 screenplay for Terra Incognita, and a lawsuit by Bryant Moore that Cameron used his script and artist drawings to create the 2009 blockbuster.

Last year, Gerald Marowski and Eric Ryder also lost their lawsuit, and the court said that Cameron created Avatar himself and did not steal anyone's ideas.

In December 2013, Cameron announced that he would be shooting three Avatar sequels for 20th Century Fox in New Zealand. He hoped to release them in December 2016, December 2017, and December 2018, respectively.

According to TT&VH