aesmael

This seems a plausible explanation for why, I am told, Cameron is doing his best to suggest he invented commentary on racism in fiction, science fiction, and everything else that might be found in Avatar:

#300 "Curious" What about a case like the Terminator movie versus Ellison?

What's different is this:

One of the most famous examples of that came after James Cameron finished The Terminator. According to Marc Shapiro's biography of the director, a visiting journalist asked where he had gotten the idea for it, and Cameron said, "Oh, I ripped off a couple of Harlan Ellison stories." Shapiro also quotes Ellison as saying he found the "smoking gun" in a Starlog article in which Cameron was quoted as saying he got the idea for The Terminator from "a couple of Outer Limits segments." The episodes in question had both been written by Ellison.

- Jim Macdonald

(context being 'famous works of fiction for which the person holding writing credit is sued as a plagiarist')