U.S. District Judge Manuel L. Real recently granted director James Cameron’s and Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp.’s motion to dismiss in a copyright action, holding that a disgruntled author and screenwriter was unable to demonstrate that “Avatar” was “substantially similar” to his novel, “Bats and Butterflies.”
“Bats and Butterflies” is a story about a bullied boy who travels to a magical land called Altair where he befriends a tribe of aliens that look like butterflies. At the end of the story, the boy battles against a tribe of bats to protect the butterflies from destruction. The author, Elijah Schkeiban, alleged in a January 2012 complaint that Cameron and Fox infringed on his copyright for “Bats and Butterflies.” According to Schkeiban, the plot of “Avatar” closely tracks that of his novel.
Judge Real disagreed, stating, “’Bats and Butterflies’ is a children’s story with a simple protagonist… ‘Avatar’ is a more complex story about a conflicted protagonist.” Although both stories took place in alien lands, the stories themselves had dissimilar characters, dialogue and themes. Additionally, Schkeiban was unable to demonstrate that Cameron ever had access to “Bats and Butterflies.”
This case is just one of multiple suits against Cameron for alleged infringement related to the “Avatar” film.