Posted on 04/22/2022 1:13:23 PM PDT by edwinland
When the law is used to create and protect monopolies Disney is the result. They will be back at the public trough soon asking for further favors. We can end the corporate monopoly on the underlying characters and let the market decide if the characters created almost a 100 years ago should be woke Neanderthals. Free speech and all that stuff. No law should be used to create a monopoly and then the profits siphoned into some political campaign.
"Disney’s copyright for Steamboat Willie will expire on January 1, 2024 and this original iteration of Mickey Mouse will fall into public domain. It is not yet clear what Disney intends to do as this deadline looms, but based on past precedent, we can assume that lobbying efforts to further revise U.S. copyright laws will ramp up."
"Mickey Mouse first came onto the scene in 1928 when Walt Disney released Steamboat Willie. As copyright law stood at that time, this iteration of Mickey Mouse was allowed 56 years of protection, as copyright law was changed to a 28 year protection term with the option to renew for another 28 years in 1909.3 Under the 1909 provision, the protections for Steamboat Willie should have expired in 1984 and the character would have fallen into public domain, meaning anyone could use the character however they pleased, even for profit, without having to secure permission or pay royalties to a creator or company.
With this date on the horizon, The Walt Disney Company began seriously lobbying for Congress to make further changes to the Copyright Act. Considering U.S. copyright law had not seen any major changes since 1909 while the U.S. and the world had seen many technological advances in the early 20th century with radio, movies and television bursting onto the scene, it made sense for Congress to examine the intellectual property questions that were raised with these new forms of communication.
The hard lobbying paid off, with Congress enacting copyright reform through the Copyright Act of 1976. This revision allowed works to be protected for the author’s life, plus 50 years, or 75 years for works owned by corporations. This pushed protection for Mickey Mouse to 2003."
1. They will pass a bill to repeal the act and put US copyright law back to normal (56 years) like the rest of the world instead of the current 95 years.
2. Presidential candidates should say if they will sign the law in 2024.
3. Regardless, Republicans should announce now that they will filibuster any attempt at a further, further, further extension of the law.
More information about the law and Disney’s control over our laws here:
https://online.yu.edu/cardozo/blog/disney-influence-copyright-law
This is one of those opportunities where the right and the left can combine to defeat the bribed and bridled middle.
Excellent point. For all those on the left who reflexively repeat that corporations shouldn’t have rights (Citizens United) here’s something we should be able to agree on:
“The hard lobbying paid off, with Congress enacting copyright reform through the Copyright Act of 1976. This revision allowed works to be protected for the author’s life, plus 50 years, or 75 years for works owned by corporations. This pushed protection for Mickey Mouse to 2003.”
Make individual and corporate copyright the same. 56 years period.
As someone who makes money off copyright liscensing….I love the current laws. Lol
Return all patents to the original 14 years and reduce copyright to life of the author plus 10. No exceptions.
Whenever I see the chance I’m going to brand Disney. Maybe eBay my jojoba as Mickey Mouse Beans, e.g.
Well, Henry Ford might have been a genius, but ‘The Eternal Jew’ ended up being one of the most influential books in the Third Reich. Carnegie did a lot of good, but the Johnstown flood might well have been a big part of the reason he tried so hard to leave a positive legacy.
The problem with all foundations like those is that they don’t have to produce anything of quantitative value.
That Star Wars and other franchises would have fared much better under any other corporate entity than Disney is a certainty.
Maybe the left and right can also energize the gamer and nerd vote who have been so disappointed in the woke that broke their favorite comic book, sci fi, and fantasy characters.
I have hated Disney for years and years. When I first found out how badly they’d managed to screw up copyright and the public domain.
It is especially ironic considering how many of Disney’s films were based on public domain stories
I am of the opinion that patents and copyrights should only extend for a total of 20 years.
By the way:
This article is from March 2022. I mistakenly put 2012 above.
The article understates the case for how fa copyright has been mangled. The original copyright was 14 years, and could be extended one time for another 14 years, which would make the total 28 years. The entirety of the Beatles catalog, and the majority of Disney’s works should be in the public domain.
As someone who uses public domain works to record audiobooks and release them as open source, I can’t tell you how frustrating copyright law is.
Need to go back to that constitutional 25 year bit all around.
Another is that like all corporations, they are essentially immortal. That is one of the reasons why 100+ years of copyright makes sense to disney and others. The public domain has been robbed blind by these corporations.
Big Media Companies Are Pirating Your Copyrights -- And Free Speech
Henry Ford I did not set up the Found Foundation, That happened when Ford went public in 1950 and the Ford Family set it up. Within a few years the Liberals had taken over the board, sold all the Ford Stock in about 1964 and by 1966 Henry Ford II washed his hands of the thing and regretted ever doing it.
Exactly.
The purpose of patent and copyright is to encourage people to be creative by protecting the fruits of their labors for a sufficient time for them to be recompensed. Nobody except for the corporation itself is benefited by the protections lasting so long.
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