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Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: Simon and Fiona sfuller@******.com.au
Subject: Matrix Movie
Date: Sat, 5 Feb 2000 13:04:13 +1100
Someone said a while ago that the movie Matrix was based on the very good
story out of Virtual Realities and so FASA got royalties for use of the word
Matrix. Can this be verified in any way? It seems that every man and his dog
is claiming their story was ripped off while the brothers Wachowski say they
conceptualised the story on their own.
Thanks for any help.
Message no. 2
From: Simon and Fiona sfuller@******.com.au
Subject: Matrix Movie
Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2000 11:39:58 +1100
-----Original Message-----
From: J. Keith Henry <neojudas@******************.com>
To: shadowrn@*********.com <shadowrn@*********.com>
Date: Friday, January 05, 2001 10:28 PM
Subject: Re: Matrix Movie


Thanks heaps, is there any official info you could point me toward? The
people I was talking to are a cynical bunch. I personally can see the
skeleton of the VR story within the Matrix movie, but then I was looking for
it.
Message no. 3
From: Steve Collins einan@*********.net
Subject: Matrix Movie
Date: Thu, 4 Jan 01 23:32:11 -0500
On 2/4/00 9:04 pm, Simon and Fiona said:

>Someone said a while ago that the movie Matrix was based on the very good
>story out of Virtual Realities and so FASA got royalties for use of the word
>Matrix. Can this be verified in any way? It seems that every man and his dog
>is claiming their story was ripped off while the brothers Wachowski say they
>conceptualised the story on their own.
>Thanks for any help.
>


My understanding is that it was originally concieved as a movie based off
that story but FASA would not yield creative control if it were to be put
in the world of Shadowrun. As preproduction went on the plot of the
script kept evolving further and further away from the story in VR and
eventually they gave up trying to tie the two together. I believe that
FASA was given some kind of consulting fee and a royalty because they
already owned the rights to the term "The Matrix". In the end though the
movie was not based on that story, just loosely inspired by it.

Steve
Message no. 4
From: J. Keith Henry neojudas@******************.com
Subject: Matrix Movie
Date: Fri, 5 Jan 2001 06:29:52 -0500
From: "Simon and Fiona" <sfuller@******.com.au>
Subject: Matrix Movie


> Someone said a while ago that the movie Matrix was based on the very good
> story out of Virtual Realities and so FASA got royalties for use of the
word
> Matrix. Can this be verified in any way? It seems that every man and his
dog
> is claiming their story was ripped off while the brothers Wachowski say
they
> conceptualised the story on their own.
> Thanks for any help.

Okay, here's the help.

The *ORIGINAL* idea was that FASA's story containing "Renny" from VR1 was
going to be the basis for the original movie. However, due to conflicting
interests in retaining Shadowrun story/history, all of that collapsed apart
(EXTREMELY OVERGENERALIZED STATEMENT!). Thus "the Brothers" wound up with a
script and screenplay pretty much their own.

(Did they gain inspiration from Shadowrun??? Very likely in my *personal*
opinion... lord only knows if they drew evil plot ideas from the earliest
beginnings of the Deus/Renraku stuff)

Thus, there are no "metahumans" or "otaku". Sure, there are kids
involved
that are extremely adept at what they do ... but on par with the otaku
(especially an Emersed/Ascended/Initiated one)... not on a good day. Hence
we don't see any "megacorps", even though the company that Neo worked for
(Mr. Anderson) was some really big software/hardware type firm. And I think
that *everyone* knows there's no Magic in the Matrix. <wink/wink,
nudge/nudge>

Would it have been cool to have seen? Hell yeah, without a doubt. Did it
happen? Sorry, no such luck.

So no, to the best of my knowledge (which isn't perfect by any means), FASA
does NOT earn royalties or anything similar, and anyone who has made such
claims and is not a member of the FASA Management Staff (ie; Mort, Sharon,
Ross), they are talking out of their ass.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
J. Keith Henry ("K", "NeoJudas")
Hoosier Hacker House (www.hoosierhackerhouse.com)
Message no. 5
From: J. Keith Henry neojudas@******************.com
Subject: Matrix Movie
Date: Sat, 6 Jan 2001 21:34:27 -0500
From: "Simon and Fiona" <sfuller@******.com.au>
Subject: Re: Matrix Movie


> Thanks heaps, is there any official info you could point me toward? The
> people I was talking to are a cynical bunch. I personally can see the
> skeleton of the VR story within the Matrix movie, but then I was looking
for
> it.

To the best of my understanding, nothing official remains. Probably best
that way.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
J. Keith Henry ("K" "NeoJudas")
Hoosier Hacker House (http://hoosierhackerhouse.com/)
Message no. 6
From: Mike D Fontaine dartheggbert@****.com
Subject: Matrix Movie
Date: Sun, 7 Jan 2001 16:19:25 +0000
> So no, to the best of my knowledge (which isn't perfect by any
> means), FASA
> does NOT earn royalties or anything similar, and anyone who has made
> such
> claims and is not a member of the FASA Management Staff (ie; Mort,
> Sharon,
> Ross), they are talking out of their ass.

Okay I have a similar question.... Isn't Matrix a trademark of the FASA
corp? Shouldn't they have had to pay Fasa to use it?

Just a thought
Czar Eggbert

{Entering Lurk Mode ++++++}
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Message no. 7
From: Dvixen dvixen@*********.com
Subject: Matrix Movie
Date: Sun, 7 Jan 2001 13:34:20 -0800
> > So no, to the best of my knowledge (which isn't perfect by any
> > means), FASA
> > does NOT earn royalties or anything similar, and anyone who
> has made
> > such
> > claims and is not a member of the FASA Management Staff (ie; Mort,
> > Sharon,
> > Ross), they are talking out of their ass.
>
> Okay I have a similar question.... Isn't Matrix a trademark
> of the FASA
> corp? Shouldn't they have had to pay Fasa to use it?

If I am remembering correct, the Matrix trademark extends to games, not
movies. So while the Matrix movie could exist, games based on the Matrix
(using that name) cannot.
Message no. 8
From: Rookie tmathena@*******.net
Subject: Matrix Movie
Date: Sun, 07 Jan 2001 14:56:00 -0800
> -----Original Message-----
> If I am remembering correct, the Matrix trademark extends to
> games, not
> movies. So while the Matrix movie could exist, games based on
> the Matrix
> (using that name) cannot.
>
>

Hence why I have not seen any Matrix toys.

-Rookie
Message no. 9
From: Mark Hall nexx@*****.interkan.net
Subject: Matrix Movie
Date: Sun, 7 Jan 2001 17:06:25 -0600 (CST)
On Sun, 7 Jan 2001, Rookie wrote:

> > If I am remembering correct, the Matrix trademark extends to
> > games, not
> > movies. So while the Matrix movie could exist, games based on
> > the Matrix
> > (using that name) cannot.
>
> Hence why I have not seen any Matrix toys.

::plays obscure joke card:: Especially those hard to find Trinity
dolls...
Message no. 10
From: Lars Wagner Hansen l-hansen@*****.tele.dk
Subject: Matrix Movie
Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2001 00:19:19 +0100
From: Rookie <tmathena@*******.net>


> > If I am remembering correct, the Matrix trademark extends to
> > games, not
> > movies. So while the Matrix movie could exist, games based on
> > the Matrix
> > (using that name) cannot.
>
> Hence why I have not seen any Matrix toys.

But they are around. There are action figures of all the major characters from the film.

Lars
Message no. 11
From: DemonPenta@***.com DemonPenta@***.com
Subject: Matrix Movie
Date: Sun, 7 Jan 2001 18:34:55 EST
In a message dated 1/7/01 6:24:39 PM Eastern Standard Time,
l-hansen@*****.tele.dk writes:

> But they are around. There are action figures of all the major characters
> from the film.
>
> Lars

Why, why, WHY hasn't FASA collected licensing/royalty fees?
Message no. 12
From: Rookie tmathena@*******.net
Subject: Matrix Movie
Date: Sun, 07 Jan 2001 16:35:35 -0800
-----Original Message-----

>But they are around. There are action figures of all the major characters
from the film.
>
>Lars

Then I need to get me one for tonight!
Do they make them life sized?
Message no. 13
From: J. Keith Henry ereskanti@***.cioe.com
Subject: Matrix Movie
Date: Sun, 7 Jan 2001 23:13:36 -0500
From: "Mike D Fontaine" <dartheggbert@****.com>
Subject: Re: Matrix Movie


> Okay I have a similar question.... Isn't Matrix a trademark of the FASA
> corp? Shouldn't they have had to pay Fasa to use it?
>
> Just a thought
> Czar Eggbert

To understand the details of this, one must understand the finer, and
considerably more complex, laws surrounding TradeMARK, TradeNAME, Copyright,
Title, Authorization, Patent and the host of related issues regarding this.

Suffice to say, there *are* dolls for the movie, and I've been told a few
other toys (though I've only personally seen the dolls myself). There are
no video games for "MATRIX" at this time (and please, show me the fun of
doing this JUST so I can sit back with popcorn a few cold beers... maybe a
pizza and watch Microsoft utterly waste whomever enjoins that realm without
their permission). As Dvixen mentioned, the copyrights/trademarks extend to
certain forms of media and material coverage and obviously not to EVERYTHING
that is possibly marketable.

Its an ultra-fine, ultra-unclear, line that gets foggier and foggier as time
goes on. But again, as I mentioned in other places... questions such as
this should really be directed to (shadowrun@****.com) or perhaps
(president@****.com) or (marketing@****.com) (I'm using brackets to keep the
emails from formatting into something I don't want them to).

I really don't know if "president" will work, but I'd curious to discover
where that particular email gets mapped to if there is nothing awaiting it
officially. Marketing should work fine still or at least go to the correct
person(s) that it needs to.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
J. Keith Henry ("K" "NeoJudas")
Hoosier Hacker House (http://hoosierhackerhouse.com/)
Message no. 14
From: Damian Sharp zadoc@***.neu.edu
Subject: Matrix Movie
Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2001 00:33:17 -0500 (EST)
On Sun, 7 Jan 2001, Mark Hall wrote:

> ::plays obscure joke card:: Especially those hard to find Trinity
> dolls...

So, I assume this is from somewhere other than UF, yes?
Where?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Damian Sharp of Real Life, College Graduate |
| Zauviir Seldszar of Wildlands, Scribe of House Maritym |
| Xavier Kindric of Shandlin's Ferry, member of Valindar |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Don't speak Latin in front of the books"
Message no. 15
From: Lars Wagner Hansen l-hansen@*****.tele.dk
Subject: Matrix Movie
Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2001 21:06:45 +0100
From: Rookie <tmathena@*******.net>
>
> >But they are around. There are action figures of all the major characters
> from the film.
> >
> >Lars
>
> Then I need to get me one for tonight!

Here you go, Trinity just for you:
http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1205709233

> Do they make them life sized?

Could be, but don't count on it :-)

Lars
Message no. 16
From: Paul Collins paulcollins@*******.com
Subject: Matrix Movie
Date: Tue, 9 Jan 2001 22:01:12 +1100
----- Original Message -----
From: "Rookie" <tmathena@*******.net>
To: <shadowrn@*********.com>
Sent: Monday, January 08, 2001 11:35 AM
Subject: RE: Matrix Movie


>
>
> -----Original Message-----
>
> >But they are around. There are action figures of all the major characters
> from the film.
> >
> >Lars
>
> Then I need to get me one for tonight!
> Do they make them life sized?
>

Umm, Dolls aren't really game related are they? More of a collecting thing,
or for the ruggies to play with.

Oh, btw Rookie. They are an expanded 12 inch doll, but if you really want a
life sized Trinity, http://www.realdoll.com do custom work for a modest fee.


Annachie

------------------------------------------------

-----If the women folk don't find you handsom, they should at least find you
handy

Further Reading

If you enjoyed reading about Matrix Movie, you may also be interested in:

Disclaimer

These messages were posted a long time ago on a mailing list far, far away. The copyright to their contents probably lies with the original authors of the individual messages, but since they were published in an electronic forum that anyone could subscribe to, and the logs were available to subscribers and most likely non-subscribers as well, it's felt that re-publishing them here is a kind of public service.

Thwap!