Disney’s Beauty and the Beast remake ripped off ‘unique’ software, jury finds
Award of $600m is a fraction of the $38.7m claimed originally | California jury says film studio’s 2017 adaptation of the fairy tale infringed the copyright of a small VFX company | Disney found “vicariously” liable.
The Walt Disney Company has been ordered to pay $600,000 in damages for knowingly using special effects software in its 2017 adaptation of Beauty and the Beast, starring Dan Stevens and Emma Watson.
California tech firm Rearden accused Disney in 2017 of using its patented and copyright-protected visual effects (VFX) software MOVA Contour in the box-office hit without permission.
MOVA, used by major studios in Hollywood, is described as photoreal facial capture and animation or contour reality capture. The software enables film studios to create photoreal computer-graphics (CG) heads for animated characters, and was used for the character of the Beast in the film, played by Dan Stevens.
Emma Watson, who played the character Belle in the film, said of the technology: “...when you see Beast on screen there is something so human about him…[MOVA Contour] really captures the subtlety of Dan’s facial expression and the performance that he gives…I don’t think the world has seen anything like it before. I think it’s really unique to our film.”
‘Vicarious’ infringement
In its verdict delivered yesterday, December 21, an Oakland jury found that Disney is “vicariously” liable for infringing Rearden’s copyright in the software.
The damages award is substantially less than Rearden had initially asked for—£38.7 million—but the jury found that the majority of Disney’s profits from the film were not attributable to the use of MOVA.
A Disney spokesperson said that the company was "gratified that the jury properly rejected Rearden’s request for $38 million in profits", reported Reuters.
Attributable profits
Rearden argued that the movie’s box office success was due to VFX work performed by MOVA.
But Disney argued that it had no way of knowing that the software was infringing, and that the film’s success did not depend upon the use of MOVA.
Disney’s profits from Beauty and the Beast were reported in the trial as being nearly $226 million, although the jury verdict confirmed that the majority of that sum was not attributable to its infringement.
The portion attributed to Disney's profits, almost $346,000, forms part of the damages awarded to Rearden, with more than $250,000 of the total representing actual damages.
The profits from the film were, at the time of the 2017 complaint, $350 million globally, breaking box-office records to become the tenth highest grossing movie of any rating of all time.
It became the top film opening of all time for a PG-rated film, both domestically and internationally and was the highest grossing PG-rated film of all time, earning $1.25 billion worldwide.
A twist in the tale
Rearden filed its complaint in July 2017, four months after the film was released.
In a twist to the tale, other parties were embroiled in the lawsuit at the time.
A central question during the trial was whether VFX firm Digital Domain 3.0 (DD3), which Disney worked with on the production of Beauty and had hired a former employee of Rearden, owned the software at issue.
Rearden accused the ex-employee of stealing MOVA technology and took it to DD3.
Separately, a Chinese company, Shenzhenshi Haitiecheng Science and Technology, filed a declaratory judgment action against Rearden, alleging that it had acquired MOVA assets.
Shenzhenshi further alleged that it had granted an exclusive licence to the MOVA assets to DD3.
In its 2017 complaint, Rearden described Shenzhenshi’s ownership claims as “transparently false”.
The case is Rearden et al v The Walt Disney Company et al and was heard in the US District Court, Northern District of California, San Francisco Division.
Along with The Walt Disney Company, the defendants named in the lawsuit were Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Marvel Studios, a separate studio, Mandeville Films.
Rearden has also filed related lawsuits against Paramount and Disney's 20th Century Fox, and against Disney’s Marvel for allegedly using its motion-capture technology in blockbuster Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers: Age of Ultron.
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