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From: joel@peora.UUCP (Joel Upchurch)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers,net.movies
Subject: Re: The Terminator vs. Harlan Ellison
Message-ID: <1027@peora.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 6-Jun-85 09:46:24 EDT
Article-I.D.: peora.1027
Posted: Thu Jun  6 09:46:24 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 7-Jun-85 03:13:47 EDT
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Xref: watmath net.sf-lovers:7850 net.movies:6561

> 	Ellison stated that the idea of 'The Terminator' came from
> two episodes he wrote for 'Outer Limits'.  The episode names elude
> me but the plots were: 1) the soldier from the future, Quallo Kaprikni
> (sic?), and 2) Bob Culp as a robot from the future with a glass hand
> ('Demon with a Glass Hand'?).  He therefore sued for copyright
> infringement and won.
> 
> Joe Barone,	{allegra, decvax!brunix, linus, ccice5}!rayssd!m1b
> Raytheon Co,	Submarine Signal Div., Box 330, Portsmouth, RI  02871

This seems a little thin.  The producers would have had  to  copied  a
lot  more  than the IDEA from Ellison for him to win a copyright suit.
Ideas are not copyrightable, only the particular expression  of  those
ideas are.  If you could sue a writer for stealing an idea, they could
sue every writer in existence.  When was the last time you  saw  a  TV
show  or  a movie with an original plot?  A writer has to be very good
just to come up with an interesting variation of an old idea.

I enjoyed the Terminator, even though I couldn't find a single element
in the plot that hadn't been used before.  As Siskel and Ebert pointed
out, it actually works better as romance than Science Fiction.

   'I came across time for you, Sarah.'

Heck, most women today would feel lucky if they could find a guy  that
would stop off at the cleaners to pick up their laundry. :->