WaPo: A school played ‘The Lion King’ at a fundraiser. Disney’s licensing firm fined it for not having usage rights.
- Thread starter Old Man Spike
- Start date
Sure, but that's using the copyrighted assets of the script, music, etc. You don't need to do that to in order to put on a performance and if I remember correctly from that play they weren't using any copyrighted assets, so it effectively wouldn't have mattered anyway.
No. This is a massive misconception that pops up every time something vaguely like this happens (if Nintendo doesn't sue to oblivion the developer of this free, obscure fan game that was never released but has footage on YouTube, they'll lose the rights to Mario forever!)
They do have a duty to protect their IP to a certain extent, but not fining an elementary school movie night isn't suddenly going to cause a judge to say "well, you see, you didn't protect your movies well enough, so OF COURSE it's fine for people to sell bootleg recordings of your entire film library on eBay!"
It's more about a prolonged and consistent period of not protecting IP, largely in the case of more or less abandoned properties.
They're supposed to get permission for it. This is why you usually see those in really small bars that don't advertise them externally and do it illegally or you can go to, say, Champ's for it.
I'm pretty sure everyone has seen some variation of this 'public performance' a hundred times in their lives and never once saw someone get charged for it.
Imagine writing that letter to Disney.
Mr. Disney, I have some information I think you're going to want to hear.
Mr. Disney, I have some information I think you're going to want to hear.
Copyright is not the same thing as trademarks. You have to defend your trademarks but not your copyrights, as copyrights have a set time for expiration whereas trademarks have to continuously be renewed.
it's WILD.
whenever people say this place is too far left, i'll always remember threads like these.
Disney is about to go fully wild. We already know they are adding layers to their copyright protection with trademark law. For instance all their movies now include that cute steam boat willie scene at the beginning. It'll be interesting to see what else they do to ramp up for 2024 Mickey Mouse public domain
Don't worry. I'm sure they're already lobbying for another copyright term extension.
I could see that happening but I think they realized they cant extend it forever and feel like they can protect their strongest properties with trademark and brand protection and then poach all the other fictional stories characters that enter the public domain and go mwahahah.
This must be why every time my daughter tells me she watched a movie at school it's some weird public domain shit I've never heard of.
Also, who snitched?
Also, who snitched?
People keep asking "who snitched?" but this social media age, they probably snitched on themselves.
Did theyadvertise this on Facebook or did parents/faculty post pics online?
Did theyadvertise this on Facebook or did parents/faculty post pics online?
You can't make money off someone's IP. Music and movies have public performance rights. This is the same for music where you have to buy a license.
They literally have like 5 warnings on DVDs
They literally have like 5 warnings on DVDs
Has to be a jealous parent that didn't get their time to shine for coordinating the event
Should Disney have ignored this? Yes. Demanding a $250 fee is petty and a waste of everyone's time, and from a business perspective the potential gain is not worth the PR risk.
Should someone at the school have understood that you can't just buy a DVD and charge people to watch it? Also yes. That's a pretty foundational concept of "home video," and the school is almost certainly already familiar with the idea of public use rights for any music they use at sporting events.
You can hold both of those ideas in your head at the same time. Not everything is ultimate good vs. ultimate evil. Sometimes it's dumb PTA vs. dumb business.
Should someone at the school have understood that you can't just buy a DVD and charge people to watch it? Also yes. That's a pretty foundational concept of "home video," and the school is almost certainly already familiar with the idea of public use rights for any music they use at sporting events.
You can hold both of those ideas in your head at the same time. Not everything is ultimate good vs. ultimate evil. Sometimes it's dumb PTA vs. dumb business.
Oh, they don't seem to be hard line at all with IP rights enforcement against the military units, or the police officers who put giant Punisher skull logos onto their patrol cars.
Last edited:
I'm the article I read on this, people pointed out that Disney apparently still pays property tax rates from 1978?
The point is that they took money from this school, screwing them over, while hardly contributing to education in the state. It's pretty fucked up.
Couldn't they have just sent a C&D instead?
The point is that they took money from this school, screwing them over, while hardly contributing to education in the state. It's pretty fucked up.
Couldn't they have just sent a C&D instead?
Which school and when did this happen? Asking for a friend...
To be fair, Rise of Skywalker only made a billion dollars. At this rate the Disney executives are going to have to downgrade their toilet paper from hundreds to fifties.
Let's not gloss over their pain.
Let's not gloss over their pain.
They probably advertised. Our kids' school says in advance what the kids will watch so that parents can object if it's something with any "themes" to it.
Are you sure about that? Does the name "KIMBA" ring any bells?
Fuck Disney...they've destroyed the balance between IP rights and progress/innovation. Because of their incessant lobbying, copyrights have been extended to 120+ years from creation. That is fucking insane. Patents have undergone a similar yet less extreme duration increase, spurred by those inspired by Disney's finagling (originally 7 years, then 14, now 20 plus extension for novel use).
Creativity/Progress/Innovation has drastically slowed due to their rewriting the rules to suit their own agenda. The original duration of copyright in the US was the following (per Wikipedia): " The length of copyright established by the Founding Fathers was short, 14 years, plus the ability to renew it one time, for 14 more. " This is where it should have remained.
I'd advocate for a return to the original duration for copyright protection.
Creativity/Progress/Innovation has drastically slowed due to their rewriting the rules to suit their own agenda. The original duration of copyright in the US was the following (per Wikipedia): " The length of copyright established by the Founding Fathers was short, 14 years, plus the ability to renew it one time, for 14 more. " This is where it should have remained.
I'd advocate for a return to the original duration for copyright protection.
Fair enough. In my defense, hard to tell from a written sentence ;)
If only Seymour Skinner was the principal.
Or Willie to warn them!
True story, I once chaperoned a school trip to Disneyland and not only were the student 'discounts' pitiful (and most of these kids are low income) we had to pay 26 bucks just to offload a bus full of paying customers.
Not to actually park mind you but a 26 dollar fee just to stop the bus fifteen minutes and let the kids out.
Not to actually park mind you but a 26 dollar fee just to stop the bus fifteen minutes and let the kids out.
Also surprised it's only 250 bucks.
Yes! And a few other cast members. I live like 10 blocks away from that high school lol
THIS. Im sure they spent more than $250 to enforce this, seems like a massive waste.
Who snitched to disney that some random classroom was playing the lion king.
I'm sure many schools have watched it in their classrooms