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disney should have never tried it to begin with. I am reminded of the south park episode where mickey mouse walks around beating people up. Sometimes fiction is

disney should have never tried it to begin with. I am reminded of the south park episode where mickey mouse walks around beating people up. Sometimes fiction isn't that different than real life.

freeflight 9y ago
Sometimes fiction actually depicts reality way more aptly than reality does. Disney is a company that has literally influenced and changed how most of humanity thinks about "copyright" and public domain [0] This is no small feat and imho it's a far more sinister and evil thing to do than straight up murdering some people. They've been one of the main driving forces for the commercialized monopolization of information and ideas, for the worse and most likely for whole generations to come. There's also something quite macabre about such company focusing so heavily on children and constantly prioritizing their "friendly and nice" appearance: Get them when they are young and they will be loyal their whole life, get them while you are smiling and they won't expect you coming at them. [0] https://www.eff.org/de/node/90076 https://www.eff.org/de/node/90076
- mturmon 9y ago
  Sounds like Disney has done for movies, stories, characters and cartoons what Facebook is doing for chat and social communication -- Putting them behind an aggressively-defended corporate wall and making money by using them as advertising vectors? What I'm trying to suggest here is that there is a parallel between the (Hollywood-based) Disney machine that has employed, enriched, and frustrated storytellers over the years, and the (Silicon Valley-based) machines that are now employing software pros.
  - freeflight 9y ago
    Facebook couldn't do what they do if Disney didn't "clear the way for them", so to speak. Imho it's all part of the same trend where "intangible goods" have become more valuable than actual tangible resources, which seems how we spend our way out of the 2008 recession. At this point it's pretty much impossible to be a fan of something "pop culture" and not having to pay the IP tax to Disney, or some other massive corporation, for owning that IP. On one hand, generating money out of writing code or painting a character sure is a good option to have, creative arts need to be properly compensated. But with how copyright law has changed over these past decades this can sometimes have really bad outcomes and as time progresses it feels like more and more of these "intangible goods" are being monopolized. Happy birthday songs and Christmas songs being "copyrighted", sending out cease-and-desist orders to people singing them, sounds like a bad joke of a dystopian future, but that's where we already have been for quite a while now and it's only getting worse. And it's not like we'd have to convince just one government to reform copyright, at this point we would rather have to convince mega corporations likey Disney because it's them who actually hold the influence to change legislation for literally half of the planet.
- ViViDboarder 9y ago
  I’m definitely not a fan of US copyright laws, and certainly don’t approve of Disney’s involvement... but more evil than murder? Come on. Not being able to make a derivative work doesn’t compare to the end of a life.
  - freeflight 9y ago
    We are talking about an influence which has heavily shaped the public consciousness of whole generations and will most likely keep doing so for the foreseeable future. Not just for the US, but pretty much for major parts of this planet, imho Disney has pretty much changed course for human civilization without most people even noticing it. Maybe there are no "evil" intentions behind any of it, the end result is still something evil by its sophistication and sheer impact, hidden behind the mask of smiling, supposedly friendly, mouse.

disney should have never tried it to begin with. I am reminded of the south park episode where mickey mouse walks around beating people up. Sometimes fiction isn't that different than real life.

freeflight 9y ago

Sometimes fiction actually depicts reality way more aptly than reality does. Disney is a company that has literally influenced and changed how most of humanity thinks about "copyright" and public domain [0] This is no small feat and imho it's a far more sinister and evil thing to do than straight up murdering some people. They've been one of the main driving forces for the commercialized monopolization of information and ideas, for the worse and most likely for whole generations to come. There's also something quite macabre about such company focusing so heavily on children and constantly prioritizing their "friendly and nice" appearance: Get them when they are young and they will be loyal their whole life, get them while you are smiling and they won't expect you coming at them. [0] https://www.eff.org/de/node/90076 https://www.eff.org/de/node/90076

mturmon 9y ago
Sounds like Disney has done for movies, stories, characters and cartoons what Facebook is doing for chat and social communication -- Putting them behind an aggressively-defended corporate wall and making money by using them as advertising vectors? What I'm trying to suggest here is that there is a parallel between the (Hollywood-based) Disney machine that has employed, enriched, and frustrated storytellers over the years, and the (Silicon Valley-based) machines that are now employing software pros.
- freeflight 9y ago
  Facebook couldn't do what they do if Disney didn't "clear the way for them", so to speak. Imho it's all part of the same trend where "intangible goods" have become more valuable than actual tangible resources, which seems how we spend our way out of the 2008 recession. At this point it's pretty much impossible to be a fan of something "pop culture" and not having to pay the IP tax to Disney, or some other massive corporation, for owning that IP. On one hand, generating money out of writing code or painting a character sure is a good option to have, creative arts need to be properly compensated. But with how copyright law has changed over these past decades this can sometimes have really bad outcomes and as time progresses it feels like more and more of these "intangible goods" are being monopolized. Happy birthday songs and Christmas songs being "copyrighted", sending out cease-and-desist orders to people singing them, sounds like a bad joke of a dystopian future, but that's where we already have been for quite a while now and it's only getting worse. And it's not like we'd have to convince just one government to reform copyright, at this point we would rather have to convince mega corporations likey Disney because it's them who actually hold the influence to change legislation for literally half of the planet.
ViViDboarder 9y ago
I’m definitely not a fan of US copyright laws, and certainly don’t approve of Disney’s involvement... but more evil than murder? Come on. Not being able to make a derivative work doesn’t compare to the end of a life.
- freeflight 9y ago
  We are talking about an influence which has heavily shaped the public consciousness of whole generations and will most likely keep doing so for the foreseeable future. Not just for the US, but pretty much for major parts of this planet, imho Disney has pretty much changed course for human civilization without most people even noticing it. Maybe there are no "evil" intentions behind any of it, the end result is still something evil by its sophistication and sheer impact, hidden behind the mask of smiling, supposedly friendly, mouse.