I'm no defender of Congress, but that is not the case here. The companies that were lobbying for copyright extensions stopped doing so some time ago....
I'm no defender of Congress, but that is not the case here. The companies that were lobbying for copyright extensions stopped doing so some time ago.
The rise of the Internet has totally changed the political landscape on copyright issues. The Electronic Frontier Foundation is much larger than it was in 1998. Other groups, including Public Knowledge, didn't even exist 20 years ago. Internet companies—especially Google—have become powerful opponents of expanding copyright protections.
Most importantly, there's now a broad grassroots engagement on copyright issues—something that became evident with the massive online protests against the infamous Stop Online Piracy Act in 2012. SOPA would have forced ISPs to enforce DNS-based blacklists of sites accused of promoting piracy. It was such a bad idea that Wikipedia, Google, and other major sites blacked themselves out in protest. The digital rights activist group Demand Progress emerged from the SOPA fight and has gone on to play a key role organizing protests over network neutrality and other issues.
And that means that advocates of a new copyright term extension bill wouldn't be able to steamroll opponents the way they did 20 years ago. Any term extension proposal would face a well-organized and well-funded opposition with significant grassroots support.
"After the SOPA fight, Hollywood likely knows that the public would fight back," wrote Daniel Nazer, an attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, in an email to Ars. "I suspect that Big Content knows it would lose the battle and is smart enough not to fight."
I appreciate the background, and I admit I'm being a bit hyperbolic, but that kinda aligns with what I'm saying. Congress would love to be able to pass these things on behalf of their donors, like...
I appreciate the background, and I admit I'm being a bit hyperbolic, but that kinda aligns with what I'm saying. Congress would love to be able to pass these things on behalf of their donors, like with SOPA. But the opposition is just organised enough that they'd have to spend political capital on it. Political capital that they'd rather spend on other things. The corporations are aware of this, and didn't try to push for it this time.
It's just that specific Mickey though. Mickey's other many variants are still unavailable, you have to be careful your version doesn't look closer to a different Mickey. Betting there will be a...
It's just that specific Mickey though. Mickey's other many variants are still unavailable, you have to be careful your version doesn't look closer to a different Mickey. Betting there will be a lot of suits simply because someone added better eyes.
I’m imagining smaller outlets will be the only ones that take advantage of this. Foreign outlets have probably been slapping Mickey on things regardless of the law, and I think domestic businesses...
I’m imagining smaller outlets will be the only ones that take advantage of this. Foreign outlets have probably been slapping Mickey on things regardless of the law, and I think domestic businesses will still avoid it for legal reasons.
This is completely unrestricted guessing on my part.
It seems that Disney will continue their legal strategy of trying to bankrupt anyone who tries to use Mickey, regardless of merit. Hopefully, such slapsuits will become significantly harder from...
It seems that Disney will continue their legal strategy of trying to bankrupt anyone who tries to use Mickey, regardless of merit. Hopefully, such slapsuits will become significantly harder from now on.
Having no real right never stopped anyone—be it Disney, Sony, Nintendo or whoever—from threatening authors trying to exercise fair use. Not only because people like O’Neill lose in court despite...
Having no real right never stopped anyone—be it Disney, Sony, Nintendo or whoever—from threatening authors trying to exercise fair use. Not only because people like O’Neill lose in court despite the letter and spirit of the law (just not the money) clearly being on their side, but also because it's expensive even to win.
I for one cannot wait for the deluge of Steamboat Willie horror games. The setting is already perfect for horror, an old-timey steamboat full of animals who have a grudge against Mickey! :D
I for one cannot wait for the deluge of Steamboat Willie horror games. The setting is already perfect for horror, an old-timey steamboat full of animals who have a grudge against Mickey! :D
I also just read this other article that covers some of the nuances about what specific versions of things will and won't fall into public domain at the start of the year. Aside from the earliest...
I also just read this other article that covers some of the nuances about what specific versions of things will and won't fall into public domain at the start of the year.
Aside from the earliest Mickey, there's also the introduction of Tigger following Pooh and the Peter Pan play.
I am so happy that Congress is so irreparably broken that it couldn't even pass its customary IP extension laws.
I'm no defender of Congress, but that is not the case here. The companies that were lobbying for copyright extensions stopped doing so some time ago.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/01/hollywood-says-its-not-planning-another-copyright-extension-push/
I appreciate the background, and I admit I'm being a bit hyperbolic, but that kinda aligns with what I'm saying. Congress would love to be able to pass these things on behalf of their donors, like with SOPA. But the opposition is just organised enough that they'd have to spend political capital on it. Political capital that they'd rather spend on other things. The corporations are aware of this, and didn't try to push for it this time.
It's just that specific Mickey though. Mickey's other many variants are still unavailable, you have to be careful your version doesn't look closer to a different Mickey. Betting there will be a lot of suits simply because someone added better eyes.
I’m imagining smaller outlets will be the only ones that take advantage of this. Foreign outlets have probably been slapping Mickey on things regardless of the law, and I think domestic businesses will still avoid it for legal reasons.
This is completely unrestricted guessing on my part.
Are we gonna see a Mickey Mouse revenge movie a la Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey?
It seems that Disney will continue their legal strategy of trying to bankrupt anyone who tries to use Mickey, regardless of merit. Hopefully, such slapsuits will become significantly harder from now on.
Having no real right never stopped anyone—be it Disney, Sony, Nintendo or whoever—from threatening authors trying to exercise fair use. Not only because people like O’Neill lose in court despite the letter and spirit of the law (just not the money) clearly being on their side, but also because it's expensive even to win.
I for one cannot wait for the deluge of Steamboat Willie horror games. The setting is already perfect for horror, an old-timey steamboat full of animals who have a grudge against Mickey! :D
There is Mouse: A Doom clone with Cuphead style graphics.
https://youtu.be/av3K-PEEF1c
the 1928 Mickey Mouse is my favorite Mickey. I can't imagine we'll see a lot with this version.
I also just read this other article that covers some of the nuances about what specific versions of things will and won't fall into public domain at the start of the year.
Aside from the earliest Mickey, there's also the introduction of Tigger following Pooh and the Peter Pan play.
~arts may not be the right category for this, so feel free to change it if there is a better one.