I hate this type of lawsuit. They are so irritatingly inaccurate and continue to cause problems for less experienced commercial artists who don't understand what's going on contractually.
You know how when your kid wants to send a picture or a letter to a magazine? You remember the part of the fine print that says, "All submissions become the property of __________"?
Yeah, student screenwriters? Sorry to point this out to you, but
you presented your screenplay to Disney. You took all that hard work from your imagination, put it on paper, and then GAVE it to Disney. That is the two-edged sword of being the originator of creative content - if the Act of Sharing grants Ownership and Use to the company.... well... you take the chance that Disney might *gasp* make a movie with animated animals, or you self-produce and spend years trying to market your own product. That is just how the industry works, and wasting people's time and money with lawsuits.... well, it just isn't going to get you hired by major movie studios.
They might have dreamed up a "The Good Pirate" idea to be used in a movie, but sorry, Johnny Depp created the character design for Captain Jack Sparrow (the staggering, the voice, the make-up), and FURTHERMORE the Imagineers created the Disney Ride many years ago, so really the only ones who "own" anything Pirate-like in this instance actually IS Disney. No Disney Ride? No need for a movie franchise, no need to cast Johnny Depp, no need to invite submissions of pirate-related screenplays.
And augh, it says so RIGHT HERE:
"The lawsuit says, “every young screenwriter dreams of writing that fresh and creative script that can catch the attention of a major film studio. The opportunity to have a major film studio, such as defendants, take a screenwriter’s original spec screenplay
and turn the work into a major motion picture."
Those very words mean, "We will NOT allow you to have 100% creative control. Once you sign that document, it's not yours anymore."