To go after a movie, they have to prove that there is a connection between them and the makers of that movie, or that the makers of the movie somehow found out about their idea and used it without giving them any credit. That's why they go after James Cameron because they say that "the script was shared" with him and that's how he found out about this idea.

Anyway, it's an extremely stupid think to do, considering the actual idea of a shape-shifting creature. This would make sense only if before 1987 no one ever had this idea, there was no book/movie/etc to feature the concept of a shape-shifter etc etc... anyway, it's stupid. They are just after some money.

There are some ideas and concepts so frequently used that it's absurd to try to place them under copyright. Think of a time loop, for example - I guess it was used in almost all SCI-FI/fantasy series. The same with the shape-shifting creature concept - it's stupid to invoke copyright protection. James Cameron could say that he just read the Bible - I guess the Devil which turns into a snake can be considered a shape-shifting creature.

Anybody in the world could claim they thought of or created a shapeshifting creature for a book or movie. In Greek mythology Zeus shapeshifted into different animals and creatures to have sex with women behind his wife's back. In Japanese mythology, raccoon like creatures called tanuki (which do exist) used leaves to shapeshift into anything they wanted to become and be mischevious. I'm not even going to begin to get into all the movies and comic books that have shapeshifters, it would take all day and turn out to be the longest post in history. Some examples that just pop into my head for comics are The Mask, Mr. Fantastic, Mystic, Chameleon, la de da de da, list goes on forever, etc..........movies the same thing, T2, movin on,

Does the book series Animorphs ring a bell to anyone? If these people can make a claim like this then I guess this world really is upside down and generally fucked up, they could claim everything was their idea when it comes to shapeshifting in movies and such. Why would they make this claim so late in the game, its been what? ALMOST 2 DECADES NOW!

You can't copyright an idea anyway. You can only copyright the execution of an idea - whether it be through a script, painting, etc. For this to even go to court, these people must be arguing more than he simply stole an idea... as people on here have pointed out, the idea isn't new.

But if they had written a script about a shapeshifting robot, which is able to shapeshift because it is made of a fluid metal, and if that robot did things that the T-1000 also did, then they might have grounds. (If they can also prove that James Cameron read the script too).

I think gamers could make quite the living out of suing movie writers for their ideas.

In a roleplaying game of Champions I participated in (1988), one of the players had this character named Domino. Domino looked much like the silver surfer in his "normal form" as he was made of a substance not far off from Mercury. His super power was the ability to shapeshift into other people or shapes, but can only change into things he has made contact with and his shapes had to be simple (no moving parts). He had been playing this character for some time, and did for a long time after this as well.

Sound familiar?

Wasnt he surprised 3 years later when T2 came out. Did he try to sue? Nope. He just laughed. We all did. As anyone with a spine would do.

Folks, I think this is a prank.
Happy birthday, James Cameron.

I just found the same news on imdb - only that it's from 12 April 2002!
Check http://www.imdb.com/news/wenn/2002-04-12#celeb8
Weird.

That's probably when they took to the courts to get the rights to sue, now they have just won those rights.

I just read again the news. I guess they sued him in 2002 and now
they were allowed to proceed with the trial.

By the way, the same news from 2002 is also on AICN:
http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=%09%09%0912057

So I guess it's not a prank.

Okay it isn't a hoax.
Besides---Madonna got busted up on her birthday horseback riding.

But damn, it should be a hoax. The thought of this lawsuit is nuts.
On a related note, I was unaware that in greek mythology that the Minotaur was a shapeshifter. All this time I thought it was a half-man, half-bull.

We learn new things everyday.
I will be quizzed later...

Well, just because it's called "The Minotaur" doesn't necessarily mean that it's about greek mythology. Maybe it's somebody's nickname. Maybe it's about an object called like this. Maybe it's a similar stoy that happens in the future or something.

I remeber reading about this about 10 or 12 years ago in a magazine from one of the major papers here in Australia. It was pretty much the same story as it is now except that they had a few photo's of the couple holding a sketch book with some images that did have some resemblance to the T1000. I was pretty skeptical at the the time and still am but would like to see how the whole thing pans out just to see if there is any truth to it. Very few people know what really goes on behind the scenes and hype of a major film. keep in mind films can be in development for years and directors often overlap on projects as well as investigating other scripts and concepts. I think it is an outside chance that this concept, script, idea whatever could have passed under James Camerons nose at sometime so who knows what could have happened.

I'd like to know