To anyone who has asked in the past if Disney accepts ideas from the public, her is the clearest reason to answer why Disney will under any circumstance not allow submitals of Ideas from a non employee due to this kind of action
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Ohio family to sue Disney World over plans for Florida theme park
(THE BLADE)
By MICHAEL D. SALLAH
BLADE NATIONAL AFFAIRS WRITER
The Ohio family of a deceased Air Force veteran is expected to file a lawsuit tomorrow against Walt Disney World, claiming the company stole his elaborate plans when it created the Epcot theme park in central Florida.
In a rare legal challenge, lawyers for survivors of Lt. Col. Robert Jaffray of Wooster will press their case in federal court in Orlando, saying he and others were never credited for their role in inspiring an attraction that draws millions of visitors a year.
The copyright infringement suit is set to be announced at a downtown Orlando hotel at 10 a.m. in what’s expected to be a long court battle over the origins of the most popular theme park in America.
Relatives say the former intelligence colonel showed his plans - with many of striking hallmarks that are part of the park today - to Disney officials in 1963, nearly 20 years before Epcot opened.
Disney executives strongly deny the claims, which were first published in a Blade article in May, 2000.
Disney says the idea for Epcot was inspired by world’s fairs and a desire to build something different from the other entertainment parks for which they had become distinguished.
The 300-acre dreamscape, featuring intricate villages of 11 foreign countries circling a lake, opened in 1982.
John Stemberger, an Orlando lawyer representing the widow and children of Mr. Jaffray, declined to comment yesterday, instead releasing a brief statement about the upcoming press conference.
"This lawsuit will establish the true history and origin behind another major Disney enterprise," said the attorney, adding that the damages "in a case of this nature are simply staggering."
Mr. Jaffray, who died in 2000 at the age of 81, drew blueprints for a theme park featuring 19 nations to help foster world understanding during the Cold War.
He filed his proposal with the U.S. copyright office in 1956 and hired artists and others to draw renderings of the park, which was to be called Miniature Worlds, records state.
In an interview with The Blade nearly a year before he died, he said he presented his plan to Disney executives in New York City. But the proposal was rejected, and Mr. Jaffray’s plans were returned to him after the company reviewed the copyrighted material.
After retiring to Hawaii, he said he was stunned to see a rendering of Epcot in a newspaper in 1980.
"It was my plan," said the father of four who briefed the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the 1960s on national security issues.
"I was upset. ... I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about that," he said, adding that he did not have the money to pursue an investigation or hire lawyers at the time.
When the theme park opened in 1982, "it broke his heart," said his daughter, Patricia, who has taken up her late father’s cause. "My father was understandably crushed and disappointed."
Both Epcot and the Jaffray plan feature a huge globe on one side of the park and a lake on the other, surrounded by village nations with islands, boats, rails, and gardens.
Epcot has two parts: Future World, which has arts and science pavilions, and World Showcase, the portion that bears the resemblance to the Jaffray plan.
A Blade review two years ago of more than 21 world’s fairs and expositions shows that Epcot, especially the World Showcase, shares far more similarities with the Jaffray plan than any world’s fair.
At least three experts who study expositions and theme parks expressed surprise when they were shown the plans side by side, noting the similarities.
But, based on the drawings, they said it was difficult to draw a conclusion without more supporting documents.
"A case could be made that Disney was sponging off Jaffray," Dr. Robert Rydell of Montana State University said in 2000. But he said that without additional documents, "it’s difficult to draw that conclusion."
Both plans show echoes of world’s fairs, he added. "These are very strong parallels," said Michael Budd, a Florida Atlantic University professor who compared the plans two years ago.
One person who was briefed extensively on the project in the 1960s was then-Ohio Congressman Charles Vanik.
The Democratic lawmaker from Cleveland said he strongly urged Mr. Jaffray, a neighbor, to continue to try to raise money to build the then $4 million venture.
"I thought it was an ingenious idea," he said.
New York attorney Carl Person, who has sued Disney unsuccessfully in the past on alleged copyright violations, said the Jaffray case may have merit but questioned the timing of a dispute from 20 years ago.
"The difficulty is convincing a judge to accept a case from so long ago, especially with five to seven year statute of limitations from cases in the early 1980s," he said. "It could be tough."
Also making the case difficult is that most of the board members of the corporation founded by Mr. Jaffray are deceased.
The dispute over the origins of Epcot is the latest in a series of controversies with the entertainment giant over the source of creative works.
In August, 2000, a jury ruled that the Disney Company stole ideas for a sports complex in 1989 from two Buffalo businessmen, ordering the company to pay $240 million in damages. Two of the lawyers in that case, Mel Silverman and Michael Santucci, have joined the legal team that is filing the lawsuit tomorrow against Disney, said Mr. Stemberger.
