Children’s Book Author Files Lawsuit Against Disney Pixar For Allegedly Stealing The Idea For INSIDE OUT
A children's book author has filed suit against Disney and Pixar, claiming that they blatantly copied her works for their Academy Award-winning animated film Inside Out. Hit the jump for more info...
Carla J. Masterson, author of the children's books, 'What’s on the Other Side of the Rainbow?' and 'The Secret of the Golden Mirror' has filed suit against Disney and Pixar, claiming that they blatantly copied her afformentioned works for their Academy Award-winning animated film Inside Out.
Masterson's suit explains:
Both works are original, creative, and artistic stories about how children identify, understand the reasons for, and manage the effects of their emotions. The specific original, artistic, and creative expression and device used by Carla J. Masterson in ‘What’s On the Other Side of the Rainbow?’ and ‘The Secret of the Golden Mirror’ is to depict the childhood emotions of Joy, Fear, Sad, Anger, Laughter, Friendship, Love, and Shy as characters that appear throughout the book in consistent and continuing configurations and colors.
According to the suit; the illustrated version of 'What’s on the Other Side of the Rainbow?' was included in gift bags for Emmys ceremonies in 2010 and Academy Awards ceremonies in 2011, where “many Disney executives and affiliated persons were in attendance … and had access to gift bags that included Carla J. Masterson’s book.”
The animated movie ‘Inside Out’ and its characters are substantially similar to original and protected elements of Carla J. Masterson’s copyrighted works, in both the use of its individual components and its combination of components into a single story.
Masterson is seeking unspecified damages in the suit, but the complaint also states the suffering of an economic loss “far in excess of $75,000.” According to the suit, the defendants have scored more than $1 billion in gross revenues and hundreds of millions of dollars in net profits from Inside Out ticket sales, DVDs, merchandise and licensing.
Though the similarities are undeniable, they could be entirely coincidental. We'll just have to wait and see how this story develops.
What do you think about Masterson's case? Are her claims warranted?
DISCLAIMER: Toonado.com is protected under the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) and...
[MORE]
Toonado.com, and/or the user who contributed this post, may earn commissions or revenue through clicks or purchases made through any third-party links contained within the content above.