Disney Sued Over Visual Effects

Disney is in some legal hot water over the use of some special effects technology for Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers, and the live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast.

This is not the first time that Disney has been sued for using or taking something that does not belong to them. As recently as 2015 Disney settled out of court for an undisclosed amount of money in a case that claimed that the Frozen trailer infringed on a short film. Now a visual effects company is claiming that Disney used stolen effects on some of their latest movies, according to the MovieWeb.

The Wrap reports Visual effects company Rearden is claiming that its MOVA Contour Reality Capture technology was stolen and that Disney contracted the criminals to get ahold of the technology and use it without permission. It is also being reported that Disney had contracted Rearden to use their technology for previous movies. As a result, Rearden is demanding an injunction prohibiting Disney from distributing Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Beauty and the Beast.

The latest lawsuit, which was filed on Monday July 17th, comes a year after Reardon won an injunction against two Chinese companies that had purchased MOVA and transferred it illegally to various Chinese firms. After that win, the visual effects were effectively frozen, meaning that Hollywood was temporarily not able to use Reardon's tech.

A judge ruled that the use of the technology would only be able to be used again after the injunction had been lifted. It was known at the time that movies that were currently in production might not be able to use the MOVA technology, therefore dragging them into court for copyright infringement later on down the...