Tinker Bell costume causes trouble at Disney

A Tampa bay area teen and her boyfriend are in shock after being forced to take off the costumes they were wearing at Walt Disney World.

April Spielman, 15, and her boyfriend Clayton Covey went to the theme park dressed as Tinker Bell and Pete Pan Sunday.

Spielman said she always wanted to go to Disney dressed as the fictional character. For more than a year, the two teens saved money to buy costumes. Covey flew in fron Arizona.

When the two arrived at Disney Sunday, they became instant celebrities among guests at Hollywood Studios. However, when they went to Animal Kingdom, the experience changed.

An employee at Animal Kingdom stopped the family and insisted that Spielman take off her Tinker Bell Costume. The manager told her she looked too much like the real character that greets guests at the park.

Since the teens didn't have a change of clothes, Disney provided a voucher so they could buy a shirt and a pair of shorts. Disney officials also provided the family with a Fast Pass so they could skip the lines at the park. Spielman said the ordeal crushed her dream.

"I was crying so hard," Spielman said. "It like, really hurt me because just looking around and people were walking around and they were all dressed up and i'm just standing there like crying."

"The guests were asked to change because costumes that could be viewed as representative of an actual Disney character are not appropriate attire for our theme parks. The costumes were disruptive to our operation and possibly confusing to our other guests..."

The copyright in Peter Pan expired at the end of 2007. So Disney was in violation for 54 years. In that time, according to Wikipedia, the film has grossed over $87 million. Not one cent for the sick children.

From wikipedia (not always a great source, but for stuff like this, they are pretty accurate. I think the claim by the hospital that they have copyright until 1928 is wrong. Our insane copyright terms may give them rights to the specific version used in the play, but not to the story itself. (See bold below).

Now, I agree that disney should have honored the authors wishes by contributing to the hospital, but even an evil company like disney shouldn't be compelled to do so outside of the law.

Many of the Peter Pan books are available for free download from Project Gutenberg. Were they still under copyright, that would not be the case.

=snip from wikipedia=

United States

Great Ormond Street Hospital claim that U.S. legislation effective in 1978 and again in 1998, which extended the copyright of the play script published in 1928, gives them copyright over "Peter Pan" in generUnited States

Great Ormond Street Hospital claim that U.S. legislation effective in 1978 and again in 1998, which extended the copyright of the play script published in 1928, gives them copyright over "Peter Pan" in general until 2023, although they acknowledge that the copyright of the novel version, published in 1911, has expired in the United States.[18]

Previously, GOSH's claim of U.S. copyright had been contested by various parties. J. E. Somma sued GOSH to permit the U.S. publication of her sequel After the Rain, A New Adventure for Peter Pan. GOSH and Somma settled out of court in March 2005, issuing a joint statement which characterised her novel – which she had argued was a commentary on the original work rather than a mere derivative of it – as "fair use" of the hospital's "U.S. intellectual property rights". Their confidential settlement did not set any legal precedent, however.[19] Disney was a long-time licensee to the animation rights, and cooperated with the hospital when its copyright claim was clear, but in 2004 Disney published Dave Barry's and Ridley Pearson's Peter and the Starcatchers in the U.S., the first of several sequels, without permission and without making royalty payments. In 2006, Top Shelf Productions published in the U.S. Lost Girls, a pornographic graphic novel featuring Wendy Darling, also without permission or royalties.al until 2023, although they acknowledge that the copyright of the novel version, published in 1911, has expired in the United States.[18]

Previously, GOSH's claim of U.S. copyright had been contested by various parties. J. E. Somma sued GOSH to permit the U.S. publication of her sequel After the Rain, A New Adventure for Peter Pan. GOSH and Somma settled out of court in March 2005, issuing a joint statement which characterised her novel – which she had argued was a commentary on the original work rather than a mere derivative of it – as "fair use" of the hospital's "U.S. intellectual property rights". Their confidential settlement did not set any legal precedent, however.[19] Disney was a long-time licensee to the animation rights, and cooperated with the hospital when its copyright claim was clear, but in 2004 Disney published Dave Barry's and Ridley Pearson's Peter and the Starcatchers in the U.S., the first of several sequels, without permission and without making royalty payments. In 2006, Top Shelf Productions published in the U.S. Lost Girls, a pornographic graphic novel featuring Wendy Darling, also without permission or royalties.

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