18 December 2008

Sophia Stewart did write the Matrix...and Terminator!

BLACK WOMAN WROTE THE MATRIX AND TERMINATOR AND WINS LAW SUIT!

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Sophia Stewart



Black Author wins The Matrix Copyright Infringement Case.


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!!!

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 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 pre 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 www.daghettotymz.com/matrix/matrix.html :

"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... Ne w York Times papers/magazines, LA Times papers/magazines, People Magazine, CNN news, Extra, Celebrity Justice, EntertainmentTonight, HBO, New Line Cinema, Dreamworks, Newsweek, Village Roadshow..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 Greekgoddess 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 al 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!"


Thanks to Samuel Riddick who posted this on our face book page for the heads up!

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

false. saying something you want to be true does not make it so.

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

see no new news on google news search:
http://news.google.com/news?rlz=1C1GGLS_enUS291US305&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q="sophia%20stewart"&um=1&sa=N&tab=wn

Niyi Maximus Crown said...

This is what happens when people don't do their research.


Oops!

Unknown said...

It's a good story though!

Anonymous said...

I knew it! I knew it! I had been following her story, and I find it very ummmm interesting that the mainstream press kept the win on the D.L.

Thanks for posting.

Gia

jon jon said...

better late! word up

NightOwl said...

What kind of Nerdy activities are keeping you black nerds away from your nerdy blog?

Artificial Wisdom said...

http://www.amazon.com/Third-Eye-Mother-Matrix/review/product/0978539648/ref=cm_cr_dp_all_helpful?ie=UTF8&coliid=&showViewpoints=1&colid=&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending

You should read the comments by people who bought the book. Apparently, any similarities are very vague.

Anonymous said...

werd, im glad u guys are posting more info about the black genius in sci-fi. Please let folks know about "Octavia Butler"(RIP) and Walter Mosley-they have both written some of the most amazing sci-fi I've ever read!
-Robert Trujillo/Tres
Trust Your Struggle Collective
"Come Bien" Books
CA-NYC

Anonymous said...

Wow this blog is a complete emulation of Nerdwithswag.com. But I guess the UK would have its own share of bitters.

Anonymous said...

YA DAMN SKIPPY!

BNN said...

REPLY to KE1

We've never heard of you!?..."Urban"..."Swag"....what do those words mean?
In the UK thats like calling yourself COLOURED! LMAO!

Anyways respect for your shameless self promotion on our page, but what are you promoting?

If I wanna see the latest gadget, motorbike etc i go check Kanyes blog which i see you obviously do. LOL!

Peace

Anonymous said...

It's not only the book which the movies are based on & paramount had for five years (1981 to 1985) but it's also the screen treatments that she did.

Ms. Stewart's words from her interview at http://sophiastewart.unn13.com/interview.html:

"It was in the winter of 1983 that I gave them the rest of the work, in 1981 they had the screen treatment, which is like a script it shows you exactly how the movie is supposed to be portrayed upon the screen. I didn't finish the whole epic until the winter of 1983 and I called over to Fox looking for Susan Merzbach she had moved over to Paramount she told me send it to David Madden's office via Donald -- at Fox and that's what I did and didn't know it at the time but while they were giving me the runaround about getting agents who are signatory with the writer's guild they were in essence creating The Terminator...It was in the winter of 1983 that I gave them the rest of the work, in 1981 they had the screen treatment, which is like a script it shows you exactly how the movie is supposed to be portrayed upon the screen. I didn't finish the whole epic until the winter of 1983 and I called over to Fox looking for Susan Merzbach she had moved over to Paramount she told me send it to David Madden's office via Donald -- at Fox and that's what I did and didn't know it at the time but while they were giving me the runaround about getting agents who are signatory with the writer's guild they were in essence creating The Terminator."


And I believe her. That belief is based on White people's present & historic treatment of Black people and women (particularly Black women) in the United States, especially as it is in regards to the media and Hollywood, and the fact that the culprits have never denied stealing her work. Their only defense was that her lawsuit was outside the statute of limitations regarding The Terminator. That's not a claim of innocence. That's not good enough.

PurpleZoe said...

This comment is for the commenter going by the name of Rafi:



Rafi, The link disputing Sophia Stewart's win that you provided hasn't been updated since 2005. It is totally irrelevant regarding this 2008 article reporting a win on the case. 3 years is a long time.

Also, I'm none too surprised that there is still a hush surrounding this. Big players lost a great deal here for their thievery, and are undoubtedly intent to keep the truth as quiet as possible. Unfortunately in this society money has had its influence...

PurpleZoe said...

Ke1,

We cool and all but this site has been around since 2007 (do a search and check the archives... It goes back to May 2007). Around that time Nerdwithswag was starting out as well, no? Correct me if I'm wrong. I remember Nerdwithswag in its earlier period when the paid reviews button was on the site, before your brother won a Black Weblog Award.

The content here and on Nerdwithswag is far from similar. Your brother's site is focused on technology and Hiphop. This site is filled with culture and Black intelligentsia of various mediums. I respect your brother's site but it's not peace accusing fellow peoples of biting without serious evidence.

It is also disrespectful to Sophia Stewart to take the comment thread's focus off the track it's meant for:

'A Black women winning a court case in David vs. Goliath style against well-paid thieves in Hollywood who jacked her book and created The Terminator and The Matrix with it.

br>
There's a time and a place for everything. This is not the time or the place for what you brought to the thread.

Love&Light
-PZ

sage said...

DAMN

i've just gotten into sci-fi movies in the past year, sci-fi books in the past month, then octavia butler's parables of the sower this week, and now just found this out about my favorite series, the matrix, today. that's mainstream for ya.

Anonymous said...

As Sophia Stewart, also known as Zenia Kavala, was one of the most popular trends in Google today, some sites rushed into publishing “news” about the author who claimed unsuccessfully to be “the mother of The Matrix.”

For example, Greg Thomas, Editor of lipstickalley.com copied an older article, originally posted by Salt Lake Community College’s Globe slccglobelink.com stating that; “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.” Thomas’ editorial titled “Black Author wins The Matrix Copyright Infringement Case” carefully left out the initial date, informing the readers that Stewart’s trial ended today. This led to other sites, like Thaindian, copying and publishing misinforming materials online, a traffic-grabbing frenzy that leads to propagating rumors and lies.

The truth about “The Billion-Dollar Myth” emerged at the end of July 2005, when the Los Angeles Times published an extensive coverage of the story, reporting that the Afro-American author Sophia Stewart didn’t attend her June 13 2005 hearing at the U.S. federal court building in downtown Los Angeles, and that Judge Margaret Morrow dismissed Stewart’s case for lack of evidence.

Stewart claimed that her 1983 science fiction work titled “The Third Eye” (copyrighted the following year, but remained unpublished) was submitted in 1986 to the Wachowski Brothers in response to an advertisement posted in a national magazine by them, soliciting science fiction manuscripts to make into comic books. Prior to The Matrix, the Wachowski brothers’ professional resume was limited to the screenplay for the lackluster 1995 Sylvester Stallone action film “Assassins,” a directing debut with a low-budget noir crime flick “Bound” in 1996. Given this “lack of experience” many believed Stewart’s fraud accusations, and her claims still ring true for many black authors today.

Rumors, however cannot change the facts: Sophia Stewart, the self-alleged mother of The Matrix, lost the trial in 2005. The case was never reopened, and although the author has enough supporters to state the contrary, there is no evidence that The Matrix was inspired by The Third Eye.