Posted on 02/03/2020 7:52:28 PM PST by nickcarraway
An elementary school in Berkeley has been ordered to pay up for playing a Disney video during a fund-raising event at the school.
It happened in November when the Dad’s Club of the PTA presented a “parent’s night out” fundraiser at Emerson Elementary to support the school.
In its school calendar listing, the club said it was going to play the most-recent version of the Disney animated film, “The Lion King.”
“I think one of the dads owned the movie. He had bought it at Walmart and we just basically threw it on while the kids were playing in the auditorium,” said PTA president David Rose.
But last Thursday, five months later, the school got a letter from a company called SWANK Movie Licensing USA. The company enforces Disney’s cinematic copyrights and the letter demanded $250 from the school for playing the film without a license.
Copyright law says you cannot display a movie outside of your home to any size audience for entertainment purposes without paying a licensing fee. The dads didn’t realize that and now appear to be on the hook for the $250 one-time showing fee.
“The event made $800, so if we have to fork over a third of it to Disney, so be it. You know, lesson learned,” said Rose.
But Emerson parent and Berkeley City Council member Lori Droste believes there is a larger issue than just Disney’s rights. The PTA’s fundraisers don’t just support frivolous items. They help pay for teachers and vital services at the school.
“Here you have a company that makes so much money and we have schools that are struggling so much,” Droste said. “What I thought about was just the irony of having a multi-billion dollar company essentially ask a school to pay up.”
But how did the licensing company find out that the DVD had been played? Did a parent turn them in or is the company scanning the internet and noticed the listing in the school calendar? At this point, no one at the school knows for sure.
The PTA president says the organization will pay the fee and they hope that amount can be recouped through donations.
Copyright laws?
The copyright is supposed to expire 50 years after the author’s death.
But Disney doesn’t care about that copyright law...
We’re a school, laws don’t apply to us.
I’d say they care a lot.
“The Lion King.” 2019
Pay up.
It’s the law.
I remember not too many years back when there were
news articles about people being hit with huge fines
because they had downloaded some songs off the internet.
Whatever happened to all of that?
You just never hear about it anymore.
[ In its school calendar listing, the club said it was going to play the most-recent version of the Disney animated film, “The Lion King.”
“I think one of the dads owned the movie. He had bought it at Walmart and we just basically threw it on while the kids were playing in the auditorium,” said PTA president David Rose.
But last Thursday, five months later, the school got a letter from a company called SWANK Movie Licensing USA. The company enforces Disney’s cinematic copyrights and the letter demanded $250 from the school for playing the film without a license. ]
I really have to wonder HOW the hell they even found out....
Also... I have to wonder what sort of person would even tell on them in the first place...
Weird...
I know the music industry plays hardball with licensed music. They lose money paying auditors to be music cops, but in the long run they make money.
MLB also is tough with showing clips of baseball games
This is the first I’ve heard about the movie industry enforcing videotape licenses.
It sounds cruel, but if they’d have asked Disney, Disney probably would have granted a free license (and Disney would count the event as a charitable contribution)
Copyright laws?
I don’t think any of those cases panned out in court. I remember one was a cheerleading coach, and they couldn’t prove she was the downloader.
The lion king came out in 1994 if they played the original. Hardly outside a 50 year window
Is that a movie about Bill Clinton?
worked for a correctional agency wanted to use a film in training. Called the producers in LA, they faxed a permission letter 2 hours later. Good deal.
Day of Terror; Night of Fear
Lyin King
You are a bit behind the times. Congress passed the Mickey Mouse Protection Act in 1998 and Clinton signed it into law.
In your example it sounds like they called up the actual producers and asked first before showing it.
And they aren’t a publik skool.
PTAs are really cliquish. We always just paid the fees and stayed clear. Some parents might not be as easy going with the ruling junta as we were.
No it doesn’t. You are probably thinking of a registered one. But a work is copyrighted even if not registered. And businesses must defend its copyrights and trademarks or risk losing them.
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