[jwdj4lfe]

Hey everybody! I saw on the news this morning that Disney was being sued by a family that claims to have came up with the idea of EPCOT center. I've included in this post an article from the sun sentinel that describes the problem. heres just a snippet from the interesting article:
"Mark Waters' 1961 painting for Miniature World, based on a U.S. Air Force officer's concept, bears similarities to Disney's Epcot, which opened in 1982. Both parks have hourglass shapes, large spheres at their entrances and a lake surrounded by pavilions evoking different countries.............According to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court, Lt. Col. Robert M. Jaffray had met Waters while stationed in Hawaii. Jaffray took the painting to Disney officials in 1963, only to have the company turn down his pitch."

disney sued article
Raises a few eyebrows doesn't it?? Just wanted to post this here to see what some of you thought about it. I personally am still battling over which side to take, there is plenty of evidence that disney took the idea, but then agian "where has the family been this whole time, why didn't they say something 20 years ago when it opened???"

Joe:)

[PhantomBantam]

So the law suit is all about artistic impression and topical design?

What ?! A lake surrounded by buildings? In Orlando? You're kidding?! Disney better get some concrete or everyone will be suing them. Shesh...no wonder Disney copyrights everything.

Disney had EPCOT in his head long before '63 or '61 for that matter. Now if the guy had Blue prints and engineering schematics they may have a case...

Now wait a second, what is the case? Is this another old woman suing a restaurant for selling hot coffee, too hot kinda thing? Or does he want a thousand dollars for an artist rendering? No wait, its about his anger that he was unfairly squeezed out of the Orlando attraction dollars because his version of EPCOT (the one he didn't build) was crushed unfairly by Disney's "stolen" but financially risky, fully engineered, fleshed out, brick and mortared version of EPCOT.

Golly, Obviously Disney is the evil one here, as Disney world is the only attraction in Orlando! Or the world for that matter. PUH-LEASE!

Find out what an artist gets for architectural design concepts and pay his family. I'll be even be nice and say pay them what it would cost today instead of what it would pay in 1961. Nah, fight it tooth and nail and hope I get picked for the Jury.

[YensidFan]

This is as wacky as the overweight people who are sueing McDonalds. :weird:

[jwdj4lfe]

Hahaha:laugh :laugh , Your post had me laughing...and thinking phantom! lol..now that the fog infront of my eyes has cleared, i understand the stupidty in this case..just like yensidfan stated. lol. From what I got I think the family is suing disney for "stealing" the idea of EPCOT. But when you think about it Walt Disneys concept of EPCOT looked nothing what that waters guy though up...Didnt Walt want EPCOT to be a fully self sufficient "community of tomorrow"? The ideas for the countrys and the bug ball didnt come up until after disney died, and they realized his dream was to hard to make a reality.
Joe:)

[Amethyst]

I read the article and was trying to do the math myself. I too thought Mr. Disney thought up this concept & unveiled it well before this guy supposedly showed his painting/doodling. Notice how it is the surviving relatives and not the actual man. Why wouldn't he have pursued this way back when EPCOT was first built? If he felt he was shafted, why didn't he pursue it period? An hourglass figure huh. Looks like a circle to me. Furthermore, where were these people when the economy was doing good? Sounds like yet another group of people who have been affected by the slump in the economy who are looking to make a fast buck.