What particularly stood out to me about Ms. Graves presentation on Tuesday was not the information about music downloading or the ethics of copyright violation and such topics- I've heard it all before. What struck me was the 1998 Mickey Mouse Protection Act she
told us about. Forgive me if choosing this topic seems flitty and silly given the wealth of other topics to talk about, but I feel strongly about this, in a strange way.
So: I believe that Mickey Mouse and the Disney characters should be granted a specified long-term copyright that does not affect other copyrighted materials. This is a two-pronged argument, I think. First, as to why the stock Disney characters have more rights than other creations. While to the business world Disney is simply a huge corporation, to millions of children (young and otherwise) it is also a special fantasy world, and it's creations are sacred. Disney knows how to do right by them (certain sequels notwithstanding). These creations should be preserved for future generations in there original forms, and not bandied about by everyone. Furthermore, many of the characters, like Mickey, are synonymous with Disney- a veritable arsenal of trademarks. Losing the copyright to these characters could potentially ruin Disney, and thus render it unable to continue producing childhood fantasies the likes of which I was privileged to grow up with.
The second part of my argument- that Disney should be held separate from other copyrighted works when it comes to extending the copyright. For the reasons stated above, I be
lieve Disney most certainly should be granted the right to keep their creations out of the public domain. However, I consider these to be "extraordinary circumstances," not to be applied to all and sundry. Rather, I believe the right of Public Domain should be protected in most cases. If it is really important to someone to continue to hold the copyright to their product after 50, 60, 90 years, they should individually take steps necessary to keep the copyright.
I would compromise by allowing most anything associated with the Disney Channel to go by the wayside, however.
P.S. I am aware that I have used copyright-protected images here- I strongly assume Disney will grant me Fair Use or at least a blind eye, given the nature of my post.
I enjoyed reading your blog Elena, but you didn't mention anything about the other side of this argument. What about other companies that have iconic characters that people grew up with? It's not necessarily fair to let Disney have all the rights to the characters when other companies are forced to give up rights to their creations.
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