#Biggreekmountaingames

Better get some good points for diving in all that poo water.

Been awhile, huh? Well, I was a little busy being completely ineffective to warn my people about the incoming onslaught of P.R.O.M.E.S.A. But now that's done, and I'm back here discussing copyright shit.

Every 4 years, the Olympic games take place in a city from around the world, and athletes have a shot at worldwide glory and fame. Or alternatively, every four years there's a big gathering  of  corporate sponsors around a corporate event that will leave them a couple mil larger and the host country a couple mil shorter.

Whether you fall on the cynicism scale, you have to admit that the games are an event, worthy of covering, of public interest. Even if you don't care if the Slovenian spun better in the air than the Malasyan, can we at least agree that discussing the events of the Olympic events should not be the exclusive domain of the Olympic Comitee and it's buisness partners and sponsors?

No we can't, says the Olympic committee. It has announced that no networks not affiliated with it officially may in tweets or other social networks discuss  the events herein, photos of the event, or even use "it's" hashtags like #Rio2016 or #2016Olympics .

Now, you may wonder about the legality of limiting people's ability to report on an event taking place  on public grounds(of Brazil) with public money and infrastructure(of Brazil, of which they could have used for their current supercrisis). Can a company really use a trademark to limit the reporting on a very public affair?

The precedent would be scary if it were so. Say you had a president whose family name itself was a trademark. He would be able to say "no, you may not report on the attrocities occured on Trump(tm) Tower during #Trumpmuslimpurge2018 . Respect my trademark."

But uh, it could be any candidate for President who could do this, tho.

Trademark exists to avoid something like, say, me making a drink called Coca Cola to confuse people and make them think it's THE Coca Cola. Not let Coca Cola decide in which ways Coca Cola can be publicly discussed. What the Olympic Comitee is doing is shameful, and they should feel ashamed.

But that's just my opinion. What do you think? Do you assume #Rio2016 is an official hashtag by the corporate owners of the games?

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Walt Disney vs The Public Domain

Now, Uncle Walt! Close the gate! Don't let them get to me!

Walt Disney. Once a man. Long since dead.

Walt Disney certainly understood the power of the public domain. While he certainly invented some great characters, he didn't  burn the midnight oil trying to figure out what his next movie he was going to be about.

Even after his death, his company continued to, unashamedly(because indeed, some today consider it a shame to work on public domain characters, perhaps more as a result of public domain becoming synonimous with "stuff from over 70 years ago.") plunder the public domain. I'll try to get them all, here.

Snow White

Sleeping Beauty

Sleeping Beauty 2

Maleficent

The Jungle Book

Robin Hood

The Sword and the Stone.

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

The Sorcerer's Apprentice(live action)

Cinderella

Ahem-hem!

Cinderella 2


Mulan

Mulan 2

Beauty and The Beast

Beauty and the Beast Enchanted Christmas

Aladdin

Aladdin, the Animated Series

Aladdin The Return of Jafar

Aladdin and the 40 Thieves

A Christmas Carol

And they made a whole series about how Scrooge's greed was actually A GOOD THING!

The Little Mermaid

THe LIttle Mermaid 2

The LIttle Mermaid the TV series

Hercules

Hercules The Animated Series

Peter Pan

Peter Pan Return to Neverland

Alice in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland

You know...this one?

Tarzan

Tarzan The Series

The Jungle Book

The Jungle Book

You know...This one?

Tale Spin

John Carter(but stupidly, they paid to use it)

The Hunchback of Notre Dam

The Hunchback of Notre Dam 2

Treasure Planet

The Princess and the Frog

Frozen

So Disney loves the public domain...as a source for stories. Because when the time comes for Disney to GIVE to the Public Domain, funny things start to happen to copyright law. Disney Lobbies for it's durations to get stretched.

But it's weird, because THEY are in the best of positions to benefit from a growing public domain. Disney's hoarding Mickey Mouse because it gives them bajillions of dollars in merchandising. But they're denying themselves working on Lord of the Rings, Superman, I Robot, and King Kong. They are already in possession of dominant forces in every brand of entertainment, from comics to movies to tv show to books. It's stupid that they, having all these advantages, don't see now that they are keeping themselves from more than they are maintaining.

Sure, they can throw money around to BUY what they don't own. That's their advantage over everyone in pretty much every respect. Perhaps they'd eventually enjoy owning every  popular copyrighted work of the 20th century, and have everyone have to license the rights from THEM. I wouldn't put it past the people who tried to trademark "Dia De los Muertos", "Snow White" and "Seal Team 6". Do you have the money to license the rights to Star Wars from  them? Let me know, by commenting below, or maybe sending me 30 million dollars to my paypal  ...I gots kids to feed, man!) .

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