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The Michael Jackson Estate is suing the Walt Disney Company and ABC for using dozens of its copyrighted works without permission. According to Disney, no harm has been done, since including these works in "The Last Days of Michael Jackson" documentary is "fair use." The Estate clearly disagrees and notes that Disney's argument would make even the founders of Napster pause.
According to the claim, Disney and ABC’s broadcast used at least thirty different copyrighted works owned by the Estate, without permission. In fact, Michael Jackson’s heirs specifically urged the media titans not to use its intellectual property without a license.
Since Disney is known to be an avid protector of its own rights, the Estate calls out the company’s double standard. “Apparently, Disney’s passion for the copyright laws disappears when it doesn’t involve its own intellectual property and it sees an opportunity to profit off of someone else’s intellectual property without permission or payment,” the complaint reads.
The complaint stresses that Disney is known for its strict copyright enforcement actions and a narrow view of copyright law’s “fair use” doctrine. “For example, just a few years ago, [Disney] sent DMCA takedown notices to Twitter, Facebook, and other websites and webhosts, when consumers posted pictures of new Star Wars toys that the consumers had legally purchased.
“Apparently, Disney claimed that simple amateur photographs of Star Wars characters in toy form infringed Disney’s copyrights in the characters and were not a fair use,” the state writes.
However, when the Estate urged Disney not to use any of its copyrighted works without permission, Disney’s attorney used fair use as a defense. The company argued that it could legally use Jackson’s copyrighted material since the broadcast was labeled as a documentary. This is “absurd” and “dead wrong” according to Jackson’s heirs, who see it as a blatant form of infringement which even the founders of Napster would recognize.
[...] A copy of the Michael Jackson Estate’s complaint against The Walt Disney Company and ABC is available here (PDF).
Source: https://torrentfreak.com/michael-jackson-estate-turns-the-fair-use-table-on-disney-180531/
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 04 2018, @03:38AM (2 children)
Is pushing for longer copyrights, stricter enforcement, or reduction of rights due to the first sale doctrine.
If they are not doing any of those, and are doing their part to point out double standards and help set legal precedents when the big guys fuck over other guys, big or little, I say that is a win for actual content producers, rather than ip holding companies/'publishing' houses. Disney in particular has been assholes since forever, but Eisner helped take Disney to a whole other level.
On that note: I hope Michael's heirs enjoy the fruits of his labor while not being too greedy with it going into the future. While I can't be sure if he was involved in any messed up shit later in his life, it seems pretty obviously in retrospect that he must not have had the greatest childhood and even all his fame and success didn't give him what he wanted out of life. So with any luck his kids can have some of that in his stead, hopefully with a longer and more fulfilling, if not profitable, life.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Monday June 04 2018, @05:01AM
Disney isn't a shark among the sharks. Disney is megalodon among the various lesser sharks. Disney is responsible for virtually all copyright extensions that have been granted in the past 75 years. There are a couple other megalodons, or apex predators, but most are mere sharks. Several great whites, and many many sand sharks and bull sharks. Even the various record labels are mere great white sharks. The megalodons are an exclusive group, consisting of Disney and the MPAA studios.
Harry Potter's group isn't even worthy of notice from those huge fishes - Potter is merely a very small sand shark, potting about in the shallows.
If Disney were to die, if they were to lose all influence, we might begin to roll back some of the unjust laws that congress has granted in the past half century.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday June 05 2018, @01:48AM
I don't. None of Michael Jackson's heirs had any sort of hand in making the music, so why should they profit from it?
In my view all his work should be placed into the public domain today. His kids should have to make do with the millions they already have. (Presumably).