DC letting Superman go?

[wamdue]

have you ever seen the back of an ice cream van, it has Mickey Mouse and other Disney characters on it, no copyright logo, and I dont think they are paying Disney for the rights to those images.

yes Mickey was Disneys first success, but what has he done for them lately, other than appear on logos?

 

[AviTrek]

What happens when someone releases Mickey porn? Can Disney maintain a family friendly image when there is Mickey porn on the shelves?

 

[Professor Zoom]

have you ever seen the back of an ice cream van, it has Mickey Mouse and other Disney characters on it, no copyright logo, and I dont think they are paying Disney for the rights to those images.

yes Mickey was Disneys first success, but what has he done for them lately, other than appear on logos?

I'm trying to find a link, but Disney has sued, or at least threatened to sue, schools who have used Mickey, etc with out permission. Perhaps mean, but, they did it to protect their trademarks.

If Disney got around to it, they would sue those Ice Cream vans for a clear violation of trademark AND copyright.

(Disney wouldn't want people to assume they are endorsing those ice cream vans, while, of course, the ice cream vans are using the images to attract customers.)

Edited to add:

Didn't find the school, but found this:

WFTVis reporting that a Lake County, Florida, family owned clown company is being sued by the Walt Disney Company for $1,000,000 due to trademark infringement for their use of Tigger, Eyeore, and Pooh at their clown parties.

Better link.

Maitland-based lawyers for Disney demanded in the million-dollar copyright-infringement suit that David Chaveco, 32, and Marisol Perez-Chaveco, 31, stop offering live entertainment services for children's parties that feature performers in "unauthorized reproductions" of character costumes.

 

[Lt. Trull]

What happens when someone releases Mickey porn? Can Disney maintain a family friendly image when there is Mickey porn on the shelves?

your too late.... try the newsgroups: alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.disney

 

[Kibbin]

I was thinking of the porn move allegedly made in Disney parks itself a few years back. Everyone involve was fired and the tape apparently destroyed.

 

[wamdue]

Professor Zoom I understand the tough enforcement of Winnie the Pooh characters, still plenty of money to be made, women in there 30s love to own merchandise of Poohs characters, whilst they have had movies recently.

Are kids really rushing home from school to watch Mickey Mouse? I would say that those characters live on in the mind of parents, who want there kids to have Mickey, but the kids have there own characters they are far more interested in. Once the kids become old enough to pick between two different cartoons, they soon loose interest in Mickey.

 

[Lt. Trull]

Your not too far wrong... disney would want to keep the rights indefinitely...
to keep disney porn off the streets and just in the back alley's of the internet. Disney will when this current trademark / copyright infringement law meets the deadline get it extended by law again another 90-100 years and never letting any materials fall into public domain again...

 

[USS Triumphant]

Are kids really rushing home from school to watch Mickey Mouse?

Ever heard of the Kingdom Hearts series? My son and daughter both love those games, and because of them, my son has bought clothes with King Mickey's likeness within the last couple of months - clothes popular enough to have shelf-space at Hot Topic.

And I actually do tech support for two separate, unrelated law firms in my area where one of the attorneys at each collects Disney memorabilia and displays it in their offices - including anything new and Mickey they can get their hands on. I brought one of them back something exclusive to the park a few years back when my family went to WDW, and I thought he was going to joygasm.

I think Mickey still pulls in some revenue for them. Maybe not popular-character-in-a-new-movie-in-the-year-that-movie-comes-out money, but slow, steady streams like Mickey, Donald, and Goofy have to be nice between the flashes in the pan (some of whom have, admittedly and deservedly, turned into their own slow, stable, beloved revenue streams - like Ariel, for example).

 

[wamdue]

Are kids really rushing home from school to watch Mickey Mouse?

Ever heard of the Kingdom Hearts series? My son and daughter both love those games, and because of them, my son has bought clothes with King Mickey's likeness within the last couple of months - clothes popular enough to have shelf-space at Hot Topic.

no I have not heard of those games, but to me Mickey is much a Disney logo as he is a TV character, kinda like how McDonalds has Ronald McDonald, but does not actually sell Ronald McDonald toys (its Happy Meals tend to be branded with movie characters)

I would just love to see Mickey in something new, a big movie, anything so that I know the character still exisits, and has something to add to Disney. There does not even appear to be a Mickey Mouse cartoon series on TV these days.

 

[Professor Zoom]

Professor Zoom I understand the tough enforcement of Winnie the Pooh characters, still plenty of money to be made, women in there 30s love to own merchandise of Poohs characters, whilst they have had movies recently.

Are kids really rushing home from school to watch Mickey Mouse? I would say that those characters live on in the mind of parents, who want there kids to have Mickey, but the kids have there own characters they are far more interested in. Once the kids become old enough to pick between two different cartoons, they soon loose interest in Mickey.

It doesn't matter if TODAY Mickey isn't pulling in the cash--he's the MAIN mascot AND potentially TOMORROW he might pull in a ton of cash--and does through merchandise.

But, they can't do ANYthing, if they don't protect the trademark and own the copyright.

 

[Vendikarr]

But, they can't do ANYthing, if they don't protect the trademark and own the copyright.

They could continue to market Mickey Mouse just as they do now. The problem with Mickey hitting the public domain isn't in others making new cartoons about MM, but others making Mickey merchandise.

Disney would lose a shitload of money if companies could legally produce MM merchandise.

 

[gastrof]

...

Tell me another one.

It's actually useful to know something about the law, copyright, etc and to treat such with some sense of fairness rather than constructing wildly inapplicable analogies.

You don't.

Yeah, I do.

My comments are about the spirit of the situation, not the on-the-books laws.

Please ask questions rather than make statements about what I do or don't know, thank you very much.

You wouldn't know unless you were plainly told, and I didn't do that above.*

For the sake of those coming in late, I'll repeat what was said earlier.

If I buy something from someone and improve on it, I don't expect the original owner, or their heirs, to come back to haunt me and claim ownership of what I paid good money for and worked hard at improving.

It strikes me as ripping off the purchaser to, after the fact, tell them the "sale" was only a type of "rental".

(*Come to think of it, the two illustrations I gave regarding such "sales" should have clued you in to what I was referring to and that I knew fully well what I was talking about. I wonder why you didn't get the point?)

 

[barnaclelapse]

Superman isn't going anywhere. That's just silly, although I've rather enjoyed reading thoughts on the various legal issues surrounding the whole thing. I tend to find that stuff way too interesting.

I also kind of wish I worked for whatever law firm works for Disney. It strikes me as rather lucrative.

 

[RobertScorpio]

Superman isn't going anywhere. That's just silly, although I've rather enjoyed reading thoughts on the various legal issues surrounding the whole thing. I tend to find that stuff way too interesting.

I agree..and as I said earlier, they should make it into a movie. Get some great actors, a great court room battle. Though, I guess it isn't over yet, so there would be no resolution.

Rob

 

[Professor Zoom]

But, they can't do ANYthing, if they don't protect the trademark and own the copyright.

They could continue to market Mickey Mouse just as they do now. The problem with Mickey hitting the public domain isn't in others making new cartoons about MM, but others making Mickey merchandise.

Disney would lose a shitload of money if companies could legally produce MM merchandise.

Emphasis mine. Absolutely, I agree. However, if they lose the copyright, it doesn't matter. Copyright and Trademark are legal protections.

 

[Greg Cox]

have you ever seen the back of an ice cream van, it has Mickey Mouse and other Disney characters on it, no copyright logo, and I dont think they are paying Disney for the rights to those images.

Ice cream trucks and day care centers that paint Disney characters on their stuff are violating copyright. It's not legal even though lots of people do it. The only reason they get away with it is because not even DC can run around all over the country, cracking down on every mom-and-pop business that wants to paint Mickey Mouse on their playground equipment.

But they're screwed if a bored Disney lawyer moves into town . . . .

Reminds of this restaurant in Manhattan that used to be called "Godzilla Sushi." They got away with it for years until, by chance, Sony ended up filming the GODZILLA remake one block away. Somebody noticed, lawyers got involved, and the place quickly changed its name to "Monster Sushi."

 

[A beaker full of death]

Of course it's legal, in that it's not criminal. It is, however, tortious.

 

[barnaclelapse]

Superman isn't going anywhere. That's just silly, although I've rather enjoyed reading thoughts on the various legal issues surrounding the whole thing. I tend to find that stuff way too interesting.

I agree..and as I said earlier, they should make it into a movie. Get some great actors, a great court room battle. Though, I guess it isn't over yet, so there would be no resolution.

Rob

All of this vaguely reminds me an old (very old) Mad comic detailing the legal battles between Captain Marvel and Superman.

Anyone know what I'm rambling about?