Disney Trades Person for Intellectual Property

Dotnaught writes "Walt Disney Company's ABC has traded sportscaster Al Michaels to General Electric Co.'s NBC for cartoon character Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. NBC acquired the rights to the cartoon through its purchase of Universal Studios, which itself gained ownership of the animated rabbit through a contract that Walt Disney signed early in his career. Having to sign Oswald away supposedly prompted Disney to create Mickey Mouse, a character he'd own outright. The company that bears Disney's name fought tooth and nail to retain ownership of Mickey Mouse when the cartoon character's copyright was about to expire."

That's a LUCKY rabbit

That should read: Disney Trades Person for Lucky Rabbit

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit looks very similar to Mickey (I haven't seen any of the films with him yet), but this is certainly a win for the whole gang at Disney -- one for Walt. Something they can all be proud of.

Who stole who's IP?

Something they can all be proud of

I don't know about that... I was reading the site linked in the article and found this blurb... and other googling revealed many accounts that Ub Iwerks was the real creator of Oswald and Mickey... not Walt. (http://www.vitaphone.org/flip.html [vitaphone.org])

MGM's first sound cartoon character was Flip The Frog. Flip The Frog was created by Ub Iwerks. Ub Iwerks was the CREATOR of Mickey Mouse and had drawned the early Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphony cartoons. (Walt Disney didn't know how to draw and never learned. Take a look at some of the Laugh O Grams that he drew and you'll see how poor his drawing skills were. You can look at the Mickey Mouse poster on the bottom of this page and see what it says: A Walt Disney Comic...Drawn by Ub Iwerks. ) Disney propaganda would have you believe otherwise but the case can be settled by looking at the newspapers, advertisements and magazines of the era. Below you can see a clipping from a 1930 German newspaper hailing the new creation of Ub Iwerks, the creator of Mickey Mouse. Ub Iwerks had actually drawn a frog and his girlfriend in the Silly Symphony cartoons. In one of the last SIlly Symphonies that Ub Iwerks drew the foucs of the film were these two frogs. This cartoon is called Summer. Ub Iwerks with the help of Pat Powers started this new cartoon series after leaving Disney. The first cartoon that Ub Iwerks made for the series was also the first COLOR sound cartoon that was ever made. (Even though Disney would have you believe other wise. Incidentally the first sound cartoon was not the Mickey Mouse cartoon called "Steamboat Willie" but an Aesop's Fable which Disney had seen and copied in 1928 called "DINNER TIME". The first Flip The Frog cartoon had a mouse playing a violin and you can see above. When reading books on so-called animation history some SOB Disney propagandists even refer to the mouse in FIDDLESTICKS as a copy of Walt's Disney Mickey Mouse! Will Disney ever stop taking credit from other people who deserve it?

Disgusting

(AP) At the NYSE, soul trading closed down five and a quarter points Friday afternoon. The worth of an average human soul has plummeted recently to a value not seen since the great depression. Disney has been pioneering the movement of trading souls regularly for concepts, legal action or maybe just a few dollars more.

Michael Eisner wasn't competent enough to comment.

not a bunny...a cartoon bunny

Shit, you can eat a real bunny. But what can you do with a cartoon?

    (Except drive 10,000,000 people into fits of psychotic violent madness and embassy-burning riots. Just depends on the cartoon.)

Re:Disgusting?

Exactly! He was under contract with ABC. NBC wanted him and he wanted to go to NBC (and I'm OK with that... I think he and Madden make a pretty decent football announcing team). ABC wanted compensation for releasing him from his contract. ABC (ESPN) asked for a few things and they got them.

I completely fail to see why this is in any way disgusting, morally corrupt, or out of the realm of normal and moral business dealings at all.

I agree that one might argue that the perpetual copyright extensions are a bad thing for the public at large, but that's really not part of this story at all.

-S

Blowing this a little out of proportion?

There's a dollar value on Al Michaels contract and there's a dollar value on the copyrights to the Oswald character. Instead of exchanging dollars, they exchanged items of equivalent value. It's called "bartering" and it predates any known currency system.

What's the big deal?

Besides, it's obvious why Disney did this... as a Walt Disney creation and a forerunner to Mickey Mouse, this is an important and historic part of the Disney legacy, and it's fitting that Disney should seek to acquire the copyright.

trade ya

I'll trade you my little brother for the rights to that piece of code you've got there.

What's the big deal?

Sounds like a fair trade to me.

Oh man...

I wonder what it feels like to know that you are worth a cartoon character?

From the mysterious future: Al Michaels commits suicide; friends cite work-related depression.

Re:It's actually

Does anyone even READ these stories? He and John Madden have been a broadcast team for a while. They apparently like working together and they like the product they bring to the table Madden's contract expired and he signed a new contract with a competing broadcaster (Sunday Night Football moves from ESPN to NBC next year and Monday Night Football goes from ABC to ESPN). Madden signed to do Sunday Night Football for NBC. Michels asked to be released from his ABC/ESPN contract to go to NBC to continue broadcasting with Madden. Michels is a good football announcer. A valuable property to ABC/ESPN (what's why they have him under contract... that's the whole POINT of signing contracts). Michels wanted out. ABC negotiates with NBC to have him released from his ABC contract. ABC gets stuff (including the rights to the cartoon), NBC gets Michels.

And? No pissing off. Nothing strange going on. Just a change in situation and a mis-alignment of contract dates between two people who apparently consider themselves a broadcast "team".

-S

Almost a copy

Notice the striking resemblance between Early Mickey Mouse [google.dk] and Oswald the lucky Rabbit [google.dk]

Re:Almost a copy

That is because Walt lost the rights to Oswald and had to come up with a new character. So Mickey is kind of like Oswald 2.0

Re:Almost a copy

Ironically, shouldn't that have been copyright infringement on Disney's part?

If somebody came up with something so similiar to Mickey Mouse for the same audience (not parody), I'm sure Disney would send out the big guns to deal with it.

Steve Jobs needs a rabbit for his Apple

The rabbit will live in the iPod. Oswald will read his Powerbook, to gain Intel. His ferocity will grow into a dual core personality. Although we're not sure what comes NeXT, we're sure that there's no need for pesky sports announcers, after all. They just bitch and complain.

Relax, it's just sports

It's sports - they don't need a live human being to ask inane questions such as: "How many medals do you think we'll win the olympics", or "You just scored the winning goal, how did that feel?".

Now, I'll sit up and take notice if they'll replace a news anchor with Morbo, but I don't think that'll happen any time soon. (If you don't know Morbo, you're not with the in crowd on Slashdot.)

Dumbed down summary and YRO?

First off, what on earth does this have to do with "Your Rights Online"?

Second of all, there was a lot more in the trade than just the cartoon. According to Media Week [mediaweek.com] ESPN wanted:

(1) The cable telecast rights NBC owns to air Ryder Cup golf matches on Fridays in 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2014; (2) The rights to air expanded Olympics highlights on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNEWS through the 2012 Games; and (3) The rights to the animated cartoons, Oswald The Lucky Rabbit, which were created by Disney animators in the 1920s, but distributed by Universal Studio, which got the rights to the cartoons.

and...

NBC will run an on-air promotion through 2011 for ESPN's Monday Night Football telecasts each week during its SNF telecasts... Also through 2011, ESPN obtained expanded-highlights rights for NBC Sports telecasts of Notre Dame football, the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness.

So, I fail to see what's news here. In the entertainment business, this sort of IP and rights trading/selling happens all of the time. Saying "trading a person for a cartoon" is an incredible dumbing-down of what happened.

So tell me again what this has to do with my rights online?

-S

So an IP contract led to Mickey

Interesting, seems the need to re-create a character due to legal IP restrictions led to a huge entertainnment empire.

Wikipedia Link

Uhhh, why is there a picture of a vag on the wikipedia page about copyright extensions?

huh?

what does this have to do with online?

what does this have to do with rights?

nothing?

ok... just checking.

It profits a man nothing ...

"It profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world ...But for Oswald?" (Thomas Moore, sort of)

Apologies in advance for the attempt at humor, but it was what popped in to my head.

Will this change the Mickey Mouse Rule?

The current rule in US copyrights is that anything copyrighted after Mickey Mouse will always be copyrighted, as Disney manages to rent Congress whenever the latest extension is about to expire. Will this have to be changed to the Oswald the Lucky Bunny Rule, once they start marketing this motherfucker like he's new?

Poker Game

Well, at least he wasn't lost in a poker game for a DBX Console.

\Read your act of God clause.

RTFA, Please, Now!

(Blowing an opportunity to moderate here to say) If you take time to read the article, you will find that Michael wants to go to NBC because the people he has worked with for the last 20 years will be there:

A four-time Emmy Award winner, Michaels agreed last July to stay with ABC/ESPN as the Monday game switched to the cable network next fall. But he asked to back out and instead will broadcast Sunday night NFL games on NBC with John Madden, his partner on ABC during the past four seasons....

...Michaels, 61, began to think about hopping networks during the past season, realizing he wanted to work with Madden, producer Fred Gaudelli and director Drew Esocoff, who also are moving from ABC to NBC.

"As the weeks went on, I began to realize more and more how much I was going to miss being with those people," he said. "That's my family, that's my broadcasting family, and they're moving out of the house, and I wanted to move back in with them."

Jeesh. All these comments about feeling bad about being traded for a rabbit are spurious.

Join me, when I say...

WHAT??

Do consider us poor readers on RSS, when writing your titles out.

Thanks,
R.

MFN leaving ABC

With the crappy job Al Michaels did covering the superbowl... they could have traded him for a bag of Doritos. I think collecting a bit of Disney history is a good deal. ESPN can actually show detailed Olympics hilights. And now that Monday Night Football is leaving ABC, this is not surprising.

Michaels to Madden:

"I wish I could quit you..."

As Roger Rabbit would say...

Roger: PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPhhhhppPPppLLLEEASE EDDIE!?! Can I get Oswald? Please?
Iger: Only if you bring me the head of Al Michaels.
Roger: Okay! Can I bring a few rounds of golf too?
Iger: Sure, but only if they complain that Al's not enough.
Roger: Great! I'll also ask for some Olympic Highlights, and see what I can do about getting the Toon rights to Star Trek back!
Igre: You go right ahead Roger.
Roger: Thanks! I'll be Riiiiiighhhhhttttt Back!

IP trades hope

Does this mean that some day in the near future I have a chance to trade some (IP) for Veronica Zemanova? That's considerable motivation: Just thinking about it makes my initiative stat hover some where near the astroid belt.

What to code, what to code! *groan*

Cherrios.

According to an NBC spokesman...

...the trade does leave NBC without a first-string cartoon character, but he went on to state, "We're hopeful we can pick one up in next year's draft."

Chris Mattern

Trade value

I think this can be a very interesting development in tech industry.
Remember the MS guy who jumped ship to google? And they had a huge court fight? How much trade value would he have fatched?
And can you imagine? the next block buster trade between rival companies, Steve Ballmer for ipod/itune? or steve job for office suite?
The possibility is simply endless, and at last, there is something in tech to compete with sports!

Anim'ls

That's the inevitable path of American culture: human rights replaced by corporate rights, and humans ourselves replaced by cartoons. We've already filled the Washington DC offices and the media stages, which institutionalize our culture, with two dimensional fictional characters. Tamagochi, though not as popular as in Japan, will surely bloom in online gaming. Eventually you'll get your Disney/Homeland Security mandatory offer to download your replacement.

Public domain???

surely the early cartoons are now in the public domain... or can we expect yet another Disney sponsored copyright term extension.

Disney to trade Jobs for Shrek

In other news, Disney announced the trade of Steve Jobs to Dreamworks SKG in exchange for Shrek and two minor characters to be named later.

A terrible trade

ABC traded a living and highly popular sportscaster to NBC for Oswald, a dead presidential assassin who the tinfoil hatters think was just a patsy anyway? They got taken.

A Good Deal

This has all the hallmarks of a good deal.

- ABC gets things of value to it.
- NBC gets things of value to it.
- Michaels and Madden gets something they want.
- NBC/Universal unloads something that has no value to it -- Oswold -- and gives it to Disney (owner of ABC), who sees value in it, in return for things that NBC values.

Trading contracts like this happens all the time in the professional world, most visably in professional sorts, where it's called a trade.

There's absolutely nothing evil going on here. Which is a change for Disney, I know, but everybody has their moments.

Free Agency

Can free agency be far behind for Al Michaels? Once he's eligable his value should really soar.

Caste Members got no rights

Disney employees are called "Cast Members" I think thet left off the "e" "caste" :)

Wow! Disney was stealing from himself!

Did anyone else notice that Oswald and Mickey are the same character except for ear shapes and suspenders? (or are those coveralls he wears?)

If that happened today Universal would shut Walt down quicker than Mr. Toad's Wild ride.

So does this mean...

...I can trade the annoying neighbor lady for one of those hot female rangers from Guild Wars? After all, they are intellectual property.

You may mock me, but c'mon, admit it -- a finer use of polygons simply does not exist. Especially when they're dancing. :)

I'd like to trade ALL of them...

...for some peace and quiet. I'm just exhausted with the constant stream of noise and information. Turn the TV off, pack it up, and put it by the curb. Sit and listen to the clock ticking. You'll feel better after.

"Mickey" was a ripoff of PATENTED "Micky" toy

That's right, Disney stole the patented idea of a toy company here in the States, which was producing and selling a PATENTED wooden mouse toy with articulated joints (IIRC), which had the name "Micky" (without an "e") emblazoned across its chest. This was around the 1920's, IIRC. Disney saw the toy and basically fashioned a cartoon character after it.

Subsequently the producer (and patent-holder) of the Micky toy sued Disney for infringement, but in yet another amazing patent debacle the company LOST the suit and Disney walked away with the ability to continue creating "Mickey" cartoons and calling them his own creation.

Apparently Disney's "invention" of Mickey was neither the first nor the last time he would engage in such plagiarism. Not only could he not draw worth a damn, then, he couldn't invent worth a damn, either. I guess that leaves the term "entrepreneur" to describe Disney?

Mark

Re:New Meaning to Corporate Slavery

Um, we are talking about a SPORTS announcer here. Baseball teams trade players for cash all the time, and yet I fail to see how baseball players are "enslaved" by any means of the word...
And if that is what slavery is paying nowadays, sign me up!

Re:New Meaning to Corporate Slavery

He was UNDER CONTRACT. That's not slavery. He signed a contract that said in essence "I agree to work for ABC/ESPN for some number of years." He wanted to be released from said contract and ABC sought compensation for this. The parties came to a mutual agreement and everyone is seemingly satisfied. I just don't understand why anyone is upset about what happened.

Sorry, but that's NOT slavery. No one put a gun to his head and said "sign this contract or we shoot!"

Nothing to see here. Move along.

-S

Re:New Meaning to Corporate Slavery

This happens all the time. In professional sports coaches and personnel not bound by the collective bargaining agreement are "traded" between teams with compensation of draft picks. Just this year Herman Edwards went from the coach of the Jets to the Cheifs, who then gave the Jets a 4th round draft pick. But even in the business world, employees have a certain dollar value associated with them. All of us do. It's fantasy to assume we are unique special snowflakes and our companies cherish that. The only difference is that there is only one Al Michaels and most of us come from a pool of interchangeable workers. The market for marquee sports announcers is not liquid so instead of just letting him go, they'll arbitrate the contract they own.

And not being able to leave is simple: Al only has to yell "Fuck the fucking fuckers" on live TV, force the FCC to hit NBC with a giant fine and then threaten to continue doing so until they let him go.

Re:Um, OoohRAHH!!!

We get paid less? :) There really isn't much of a difference. Coarse, the military tends to be alot more upfront about the policy of us being government property. Anyways, USMC stands for U Signed the Motherfucking Contract right?

The Telegram is dead. Stop.

End of an era. Stop. [cnn.com]