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Mickey, Disney, and the public domain: A 95-year love triangle

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Re: Mickey, Disney, and the public domain: A 95-year love triangle

#31

Post by fbdab103 »

averageRoyalty wrote: post #27
foob wrote: post #16

My pet theory is that the only reason we didn't see a copyright extension act this year, like we've seen every time Steamboat Willy was about to enter the public domain in the past, is that Disney ended up on one side of the culture wars with what went on in Florida. It's far more difficult to get bipartisan support for robbing the public of what should be in the public domain once you've involved yourself in partisa…

What exactly went on in Florida? Sorry, I'm not across this.

Florida passed the "Don't Say Gay" bill, to which Disney publicly stood against. Since then, GOP led Florida government has decided that Disney is the enemy and has taken active measures to bludgeon them.

Re: Mickey, Disney, and the public domain: A 95-year love triangle

#32

Post by bentley »

foob wrote: post #16

My pet theory is that the only reason we didn't see a copyright extension act this year, like we've seen every time Steamboat Willy was about to enter the public domain in the past, is that Disney ended up on one side of the culture wars with what went on in Florida. It's far more difficult to get bipartisan support for robbing the public of what should be in the public domain once you've involved yourself in partisa…

I doubt it played a very big role. Consider: the last general copyright extension in the US was the CTEA in 1998. Back then, the movie and music industries were among the biggest players in the copyright space. Since 1998, though, Silicon Valley companies (most obviously Google) have become powerhouses with lots of money and lots of incentive to fight future copyright extensions.

Re: Mickey, Disney, and the public domain: A 95-year love triangle

#33

Post by bentley »

fbdab103 wrote: post #31
averageRoyalty wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What exactly went on in Florida? Sorry, I'm not across this.

Florida passed the "Don't Say Gay" bill, to which Disney publicly stood against. Since then, GOP led Florida government has decided that Disney is the enemy and has taken active measures to bludgeon them.

How much influence does the Florida legislature have over federal copyright law, really?

Re: Mickey, Disney, and the public domain: A 95-year love triangle

#34

Post by glandium »

miningape wrote: post #22
ehsankia wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wasn't The Lion King a rip off of the Japanese anime Kimba? https://12tomatoes.com/kimba-similarity-lion-king/

Basically - no, the Kimba / Lion King controversy is fake (the Kimba movie often cited as the work copied was actually released 3 years after the Lion King). Check out YMS's review on this exact topic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5B1mIfQuo4

The Kimba anime is almost 30 years older than the Lion King movie. The Kimba manga is 15 years older than that.

Re: Mickey, Disney, and the public domain: A 95-year love triangle

#35

Post by [deleted] »

averageRoyalty wrote: post #27
foob wrote: post #16

My pet theory is that the only reason we didn't see a copyright extension act this year, like we've seen every time Steamboat Willy was about to enter the public domain in the past, is that Disney ended up on one side of the culture wars with what went on in Florida. It's far more difficult to get bipartisan support for robbing the public of what should be in the public domain once you've involved yourself in partisa…

What exactly went on in Florida? Sorry, I'm not across this.

[deleted]

Re: Mickey, Disney, and the public domain: A 95-year love triangle

#36

Post by glandium »

tkgally wrote: post #14
andsoitis wrote: post #5

On the other hand, Disney itself is a talented and successful practitioner of building upon the public domain. In fact, the public domain is Disney’s bread and butter. Frozen was inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen. The Lion King draws from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Biblical stories, and possibly an epic poem about the founder of the Mali Empire.[3] Fantasia showcases public domain classical music, and “…

Yes, that’s an important point. When my kids were small, I remember being struck by how much public-domain material I noticed in Disney videos and at Disneyland. Few of the Disney properties were based on original ideas; almost everything was built quite explicitly on other people’s creations, many of which Disney could use for free. This was in the 1990s, when Disney was lobbying to extend copyright terms in order t…

And what's Disney doing now? Rehashing its own movies.

Re: Mickey, Disney, and the public domain: A 95-year love triangle

#37

Post by bentley »

shmerl wrote: post #4

Mickey Mouse curve finally is defeated. Now it should be beaten back down which is harder.

It’s difficult because the most recent extensions were put in place to synchronize US copyright with the absurd durations pioneered by Europe and the Berne Convention. In effect, the US has allowed international treaties to supersede the Constitution’s requirement that copyright last “for limited times.”

Re: Mickey, Disney, and the public domain: A 95-year love triangle

#38

Post by miningape »

glandium wrote: post #34
miningape wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Basically - no, the Kimba / Lion King controversy is fake (the Kimba movie often cited as the work copied was actually released 3 years after the Lion King). Check out YMS's review on this exact topic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5B1mIfQuo4

The Kimba anime is almost 30 years older than the Lion King movie. The Kimba manga is 15 years older than that.

Yes, the Kimba TV show is about 30 years older, but this show has basically 0 similarities with TLK. It's like saying The Simpsons is the same as The Princess Bride - yes, some individual shots and scenes are comparable but its only when those are taken out of context, and it completely misses the overarching story/themes/characters. And it also misses the fact that the anime has ~3,000 hours of content in comparison to the 90 minute runtime of TLK.

Re: Mickey, Disney, and the public domain: A 95-year love triangle

#39

Post by joshspankit »

foob wrote: post #16

My pet theory is that the only reason we didn't see a copyright extension act this year, like we've seen every time Steamboat Willy was about to enter the public domain in the past, is that Disney ended up on one side of the culture wars with what went on in Florida. It's far more difficult to get bipartisan support for robbing the public of what should be in the public domain once you've involved yourself in partisa…

If there is some influence I think it’s much more likely to be because Disney hoovered up so much other IP and now Mickey is a tiny slice of a much much larger pie.

Re: Mickey, Disney, and the public domain: A 95-year love triangle

#40

Post by shmerl »

bentley wrote: post #37
shmerl wrote: post #4

Mickey Mouse curve finally is defeated. Now it should be beaten back down which is harder.

It’s difficult because the most recent extensions were put in place to synchronize US copyright with the absurd durations pioneered by Europe and the Berne Convention. In effect, the US has allowed international treaties to supersede the Constitution’s requirement that copyright last “for limited times.”

I think it went the other way around. Corrupt US industries first pushed those conventions and then pressured US legislature to "synchronize" with them. It's all a big pile of corrupt BS that tries to bypass normal lawmaking, so pushing back against it should be only natural.
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