Disney thugs sack Post reporter.

Village Voice ^ | Unknown

[moyden]

When Disney Complains, Sack the Reporter

Who's Afraid of Mickey Mouse?

Last month, the New York Post fired entertainment reporter Nikki Finke, shortly after the Walt Disney Company complained about two stories that appeared in the Post under Finke's byline on January 29. But did she get the boot because her stories were inaccurate, as the Post and Disney say, or because the Post caved in to pressure from one of News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch's valued business partners, as Finke's lawyers are ready to argue in court?

The offending stories dealt with a breach-of-contract lawsuit filed against Disney in 1991 by Stephen Slesinger Inc., a company that owns merchandising rights to Winnie the Pooh and claims it has been cheated out of millions in royalty payments. The news hook was the January 18 disclosure of court documents revealing that a judge fined Disney $90,000 last year for destroying documents that might or might not have been relevant to the case. The disclosure resulted in a spate of bad publicity in the days following.

The rest ...

[moyden]

Liberal Disney acting like liberals

[patent]

bump

[OldFriend]

Disney sacked Bob Grant and that was a real loss.

[buaya]

I see that things are returning to normal after 9/11 - armies of attorneys are arguing over cartoon characters.

Here's a related post:

Why Disney Has Clout with the Republican Congress

[mgc1122]

The mouse that roared ...

[Balding_Eagle]

FR policy on posting is quite clear, post the ENTIRE article, with the exception of articles from The Washington Post and the LA Times.

ONLY ARTICLES FROM THOSE TWO SOURCES SHOULD NOT BE POSTED IN THEIR ENTIRETY.

[Mamzelle]

FR policy is that a poster should copy an entire article, rather than just a link or exerpt, and to do otherwise is against rules? Please lead me to the policy statement...

[Balding_Eagle]

It is not against the rules, however Jim Robinsons policy is as I stated.

Please go HERE for a better, and perhaps more caustic reminder to a particulary recalcitrant and selfess poster.

There is good logic to posting entire articles, rather than excerpts. Find some of JRs essays on the subject and read more about his philosophy. God blessed him with a ton of wisdom.

[Mamzelle]

Thank you. That links disappear and are even changed from hour to hour is a good reason to post the entire article. However, this goes against habit and tradition for me, because I used to do copyright edits for books I worked on, and clearly "fair use" is not an entire work, but an exerpt.

[Balding_Eagle]

I'm not sure if you're aware of the lawsuit over fair use that's going on between FR and the LATimes & Washington Post. Anyway, thats why only excerpts from those two papers can be posted until the suit is settled.

[Mamzelle]

I'm aware of the suit if not all the particulars. I can tell you that I used to work dealing with the murky issue of copyright. There is no clear standard, but there are lots of tradtions and conventions. Generally, the smaller the work, the less you can quote from it. Lyricists and poets have the most established protection...sometimes they can even keep you from using the song title! And we know that important speeches can be copyrighted, as in King's "I Have a Dream" speech, as ubiquitous as the Gettysburg address, provides his heirs with a bonanza in royalties.

Copyright has expanded for the holders in recent times, which I believe is an injustice, considering that patent holders do not enjoy equal privileges. Coca-cola's logo should have gone out of copyright decades ago, but they still retain full rights, as does Disney over Mouse ears.

If the other sources have not sued, it's because they don't see an advantage or don't choose to make the issue.