So is using mickey full of land mines? If you use it incorrectly and accidentally use variations of it that still have copyright, you risk getting sued
Mickey, Disney, and the public domain: A 95-year love triangle
41–50 of 221 posts
Re: Mickey, Disney, and the public domain: A 95-year love triangle
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
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?
Very little overall, but conservatives it got a fair amount of press and conservative media in particular started echoing a sentiment of “Disney doesn’t share your values”.
Additionally the current governor of Florida (who pushed forwards the bill) is running for the republican nomination for president so its made a pretty big splash regarding the “culture wars”
Re: Mickey, Disney, and the public domain: A 95-year love triangle
#43Earlier 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.
Seriously, watch the YMS video about it. Apart from some superficial similarities Kimba and The Lion King are majorly different. And Kimba is just bizarre, The Lion King never had humans genocide elephants with tanks and helicopters, Kimba did. The Lion King never had weird racist stuff, Kimba did. Simba never wore Mufasa's hide around to boost his confidence, Kimba did with his father's hide.
Re: Mickey, Disney, and the public domain: A 95-year love triangle
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
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?
It is an "anti-woke" law, which is likely to become a purity test in next year's election. GOP lawmakers who come in favor of Disney would have a harder time in a race against a similar candidate who is against. Add in a little dose of "owning the libs", and that's that.
Re: Mickey, Disney, and the public domain: A 95-year love triangle
#45I’m curious as to how the copyright pertains to the 2013 iteration of Mickey, which is similar in design to the original Mickey Mouse design.
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Re: Mickey, Disney, and the public domain: A 95-year love triangle
#46So is using mickey full of land mines? If you use it incorrectly and accidentally use variations of it that still have copyright, you risk getting sued
Damn you better be a copyright lawyer to use this, I just read at least 2-3 gotchas by skimming the article
Re: Mickey, Disney, and the public domain: A 95-year love triangle
#47On 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 “…
Disney is both the best and worst when it comes to the public domain. It shows what you should do with it: take something that exists, remix it, release it, and even create a successful media & entertainment company. But efforts to aid extensions to the term of copyright expiration will – if they haven't already – have a deleterious effect.
Had the Brothers Grimm taken the Disney view, there would have been no Disney, or at the least, a very different, far less compelling one.
Re: Mickey, Disney, and the public domain: A 95-year love triangle
#48Was there a copyright reason for Disney changing their opening logo sequence to the steamboat willy thing? Some kind of "it's now our trademark" claim?
I think it was intended as an indicator of the source. In the mid 2000s, Pixar was beginning to represent Disney animation, and as a result Disney Animation Studios started to take a backseat in the eyes of the public (and the eyes of Disney management). Having some successful pictures (Wreck-it Ralph, Frozen, Big Hero 6, etc.) meant owning the brand and indicating to audiences the source - and hopefully encouraging them to buy tickets to _non-pixar_ Disney films.
Call me naive, but I don't think there was anything calculated about it more than attaching a mascot to the studio - like the Luxo Jr Lamp on Pixar films.
Re: Mickey, Disney, and the public domain: A 95-year love triangle
#49My 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…
It might not be the only reason, but I think it's a good insight. It's also a reminder that when something "has bipartisan support" should be a red flag: it usually means it's another way the government is robbing from you (the public).
Well, if it doesn't have bipartisan support it still could be - and often is - another way the government is robbing from you, just only one set of partisans gets to benefit from it for some reason, so the other set is objecting.
Re: Mickey, Disney, and the public domain: A 95-year love triangle
#50My 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 recall a few years ago there was something published where the MPAA basically said "We don't think we have enough public support to pull it off" I may be mixing my signals, but I think it was just a year or two after the whole SOPA/PIPA win.