Mickey Mouse vs. The People

The Face Of A Winner

Picking the fifth blog for this project was a no-brainer. I couldn’t tell you all the choices, mainly because I’m too lazy to click the tab below with the reading choices, but the option that I couldn’t pass was an article pertaining to Mickey Mouse and Disney. I must say that I fell for the title of the article; “Mickey Mouse vs. The People”. Look at the title and tell me you didn’t AUTOMATICALLY side with Mickey Mouse.  I started reading the article and immediately fell asleep. Well, not exactly sleep but I’m sure you understood the boredom reference. The article is details on The Bono copyright law (law that extended copyright protection for an additional 20 years) and issues dealing with Disney and publishers. When dealing with Law, copyright cases are among the most explain confusing. I would start to explain the many ins and outs of copyright, but I’m sure I’d be giving almost close to correct, but still very wrong information. So instead, I’ll just take advantage of quoting (Shout out to my third grade teacher Ms. Davis-Watkins for teaching me).

“The previous law, passed in 1978, protected an author’s work for 50 years after an author died, while works for hire — those created for a corporation, like Mickey Mouse — were protected for 75 years. The Bono Act extended both categories by two decades.”

I really didn’t understand it all until they put these legal terms in plain ol’ English. Eric Eldridge, a website publisher, said this about the situation, “I don’t know if you watched the Super Bowl, but think of how the fans would be outraged if the officials tried to move the goal posts in the last seconds of the game.”

At first I sided with Disney because it is their idea and they own it, so I felt like they should be able to do with it what they please. But after that quote from Eldridge I jumped ship. If the refs decided to move the goal posts in the last second of a game I would be livid. I get why Disney wants the Bono Act, but I think Mickey Mouse has been around long enough to become public domain. Besides, Disney has made all the money they can make off of good ol’ Mickey Mouse.