>The law firm Morgan & Morgan sued Disney on Wednesday in an effort to get a ruling that would allow it to use “Steamboat Willie” in advertisements. >The law firm said that the U.S. copyright expired last year for “Steamboat Willie,” which was a lodestar for U.S. film animation at the time, and that it had reached out to Disney to make sure the entertainment company wouldn’t sue them if they used images from the animated film for their TV and online ads. Disney’s lawyers responded by saying they didn’t offer legal advice to third parties, according to the lawsuit.>Morgan & Morgan said it was filing the lawsuit to get a decision because it otherwise feared being sued by Disney for trademark infringement if it used “Steamboat Willie.”https://apnews.com/article/disney-morgan-morgan-steamboat-willie-6f8b8ab3fa1d7168424803f38d09838a
>Can we use this?>We don't offer legal advice to third parties>Fine then, we'll just sue you!!!What causes this?
>>150441530Politicians and journalists have done so harm in the last years we kind forgot lawyers are right there in the third place.
>>150441530Ambulance chasers
boat mickey and shirtless pooh are in the public domain and nothing good has materialized from it.
>>150441581I really wonder why nobody has sought to remake Steamboat Willie in color or 3D or do anything interesting with it.
>>150441530They are a law firm company the fuck do you expect them to do?
>>150441621Creatives with actual ideas and a drive to make things would be more interested in just making their own thing from scratch to establish their own franchises/empires. So the people interested in using Steamboat Willie or Pooh are more interested in doing what they can to score a quick buck and wait for the next recognizable thing to enter the public domain.
>>150441487Assuming a law firm knows what they’re doing, how will it benefit them in court later that they asked Disney first?
>>150441581In the books, pooh was described as using clothes once
>>150441621Fear of Disney, and contrary of Sherlock Holmes, Mickey still under protection in several important markets
>>150441530they're suing in case of lawsuit because disney wouldn't clarify and they don't want to be sued in turn
>>150442235>disney wouldn't clarifysomebody needs to sue Twitch for this same shit lmao
>>150442379Easy, Just get a political megadonor on your side, it opens a lot of doors.
>>150442204Red shirt Pooh also predates Disney, being part of some 1930s-era Pooh merch years before Disney got the rights.
It’s obvious why Disney won’t let them do it.Steamboat Willie is a trademark, or they have been presenting him as such.They aren’t going to let some random law firm use it and they are going to give a hard explanation because that invites people trying to find loopholes.
>>150441487Never shoulda dropped d’Oliveira
>>150443106I think it is funny how nobody cares much for plane crazy design.
>>150441530If they lose this lawsuit, they get nothing but also lose nothing. Disney doesn’t have the ability to drag this out since the law firm can just drop it if it looks like Disney will fight, which is as good as confirmation that they’ll sue for the use of Steamboat Willie, which is all they want. If they don’t sue here and get sued later, that’s millions of dollars for a dragged out lawsuit against the mouse’s lawyers with the potential to lose even more if it goes Disney’s way. This is a perfectly logical move for anyone who isn’t pretending to be retarded.
>>150441530They are not clarifying their stance nor acknowledgement of the law, so they might be trying to set some kind of trap so to prevent this they are getting a law suit that will put their ability to use the character, which is now free domain, explicitly into a ruling as to prevent any shenanigans.
>>150443035Talking about Pooh, the horror movie accidentally broke the copyright with the name.
>>150442158It’s so Disney will have to make a public declaration of their unwillingness to sue, admitting that they hold no legal right to do so while serving as tacit permission in case they try to claim they still have ownership. So if they sue later, it’s a guaranteed loss for them.
>>150443439This reminds me of what happened with King Kong.Nintendo won the lawsuit because the right holders admitted in another that King Kong was already in the public domain
>>150443410This will also be a good thing for setting a precedent. Disney has already issued C&Ds and had videos pulled AFTER the copyright has expired and entered public domain. They're literally trying to do anything they can to not contribute to the system the company was built on, and getting a ruling now would open up free use to everyone as well as prevent lawsuits over future Disney content that enters public domain.
>>150441581The novelty of it has to wear off first. Only then will people who truly care do cool things with the IPs
>>150443106Willie itself is a spoof of Keaton's Steamboat Bill. It'd be funny if M&M just used that instead and really frosted Disney's balls.
A peruvian fast food chain made Happy Meal toys of the Steamboat Willie cast and nothing happened.https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNdpjNgwf/
>>150443829Looks pretty cool
>>150441530legally they can use it, this is just attention seeking because lawsuiting disney will get them more attention then if they had just made the adliterally publicity stunt
>>150443369A lot of early cartoon mice look like that, plus there wasn't a lot of character to work with anyways.
>just use steamboat willie anyway>disney sues over trademark infringement>countersue over improperly using trademarks to create eternal copyrights>disney settles out of court immediately because they desperately dont want a judge to rule on thatyou just need the funds to play legal games for a couple years
>>150443829>peruvianDoes Peru follow the rule of shorter term? I mainly focus on American copyright law
>>150443548Is that why the newer Monsterverse movies just call him "Kong"? To try and skirt around that ruling and establish Kong as an enforceable copyright?
>>150444491For foreign works, Peru does apply the rule of the shorter term
>>150444539Now explain for the uh folks at home what the rule of the shorter term is
>>150441530Anon they aren't trying to get money, they're trying to cover their asses and figure out what exactly they can claim is free use. This is an important precedence case for everyone.
>>150441654know the law instead of having to ask another company's lawyers what the legality is?
>>150441564Politicians, journalists and lawyers are the unholy trinity, working tirelessly to make the world a worse place to live.Which is exactly what's supposed to happen!
>>150442158Real talk it is more advertisement itself for them to sue Disney over ths
>>150442099this is why public domain superheroes never really took off
I hope Morgan & Morgan, basically a national firm of ambulance chasers, wins because I have zero sympathy for Disney, Inc at the moment.
>>150445265In this case, the law is pretty janky
>>150444534I think so.>>150444579If a work enters the public domain in its country of origin, it will also enter in the other, despite the longer native copyright.For example Zorro is in the public domain in Europe, since he entered in the United States.
