In 1987 an artist by the name of Lebbeus Woods created a picture. Eight years later he goes to see a movie called 12 Monkey starting Bruce Willis. Several times in the movie Bruce Willis's character is brought to a room with a chair that is raised several metres off the ground for him to be interrogated. This scene was very surprising to Lebbeus because this interrogation room was almost the exact same picture he created years before.
I have photos of both the chair from the movies, left, and the chair created by Woods, right. When you look at them it doesn't take much to see the similarities. I am frankly very surprised that Universal let this scene ever appear. This case did not stand a chance in court, the director even admitted he got the idea from a book he read. The judge ruled in the favor of Woods resulting in Universal having to recall copies of the movie after only a month of being out. They would of been able to re released the movie after the chair scenes were taken out of the film. Even after going to court Woods allowed Universal to include the scene with the chair, in exchange for a six figure cash settlement.
I am very surprised at this case, but hopefully it taught the director and Universal the importance of getting the permission of copyright holders. In this case the director even knew he was using another persons work, and was willing to admit it. It was just a careless and stupid thing to do that ended up costing Universal thousands of dollars.
Sites used
- http://www.geocities.com/hollywood/boulevard/8928/chair.jpg
- http://www.benedict.com/Visual/Monkeys/Monkeys.aspx
- http://newsgrist.typepad.com/comediesoffairuse/2006/05/art_panel_3_leb.html
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