Deadmau5 Accuses Disney of Pirating His Music 137
An anonymous reader writes After Disney objected to musician Joel Zimmerman [aka Deadmau5]'s trademark application in the U.S. (his logo is already properly trademarked in many other countries), a battle of trademarks and copyrights ensued. Apparently, Disney was (URL has since been disabled, as per DMCA law requires) hosting a video containing a remix of music which Zimmerman claims ownership of. Not only that, but the Deadmau5 logo was prominently displayed next to said video. The mouse fight was on and a few hours ago Deadmau5 retaliated with a rather surprising counter attack. As it turns out, Disney is hosting a Deadmau5 video on their website, without permission. "Disney prominently features the deadmau5 Mark next to the Infringing Video. implying a non-existent endorsement by Zimmerman," the letter reads. "Again. we are unaware of any license allowing you the right to reproduce, distribute or otherwise exploit the deadmau5 Mark or to exploit Zimmerman's name and likeness in connection with same." At the time of writing Disney hasn't complied with the request, but it seems that they have no other option than to comply. Whether it will change anything in their stance towards the DJ's mouse ear trademark application is doubtful though.
hmmm (Score:4, Funny)
than, there is disney
what side am I supposed to be on here???
Re:hmmm (Score:5, Informative)
we have a guy who wears a mouse head, dances, and hits "play" and gets paid major for using other peoples music
At some point, you may want to look up the difference between a producer and DJ.
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Pay no attention to the mouse behind the curtain; just look at all the pretty lights. [createdigitalmusic.com]
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So... is he producing when he wears the mouse head? On a stage?
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The line between producer and DJ isn't as sharp as it used to be. What would you call this [youtube.com]?
I've seen a video of deadmau5 at work. While I (of course!) can't find it now, he was using something similar [gotgame.com] to achieve the same.
Give away the CDs, sell the concerts (Score:2)
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sit in his office and collect royalty checks for 'producing' a whole bunch of cd's
Re: Give away the CDs, sell the concerts (Score:4, Funny)
The amount.
Duh.
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Also the amount of effort.
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At some point you may want to look up deadmaus DJ'ing while wearing a mouse head: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
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Which one is the douche standing on a stage holding a headphone can against an ear with one hand and pointing at the ceiling with the other?
Re: hmmm (Score:2)
If they don't point up towards the air, how are you supposed to know where to throw your hands towards?
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If they don't point up towards the air, how are you supposed to know where to throw your hands towards?
Whoa, whoa, whoa. I'm pretty sure you've got that wrong. If the DJ is waving his/her hand in the air, then the logical inference would be to throw your hands in the air (with the presupposition that you just don't care). However, if the DJ is pointing his/her hand up into the air, one should be careful to not jump to any conclusions, and first verify whether the roof (the roof, the roof) is on fire!
Re:hmmm (Score:5, Funny)
It's even more confusing [wikia.com] than you think.
Re:hmmm (Score:4, Insightful)
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No kidding. That reminds me the joke: what's the difference between a hooker and a lawyer? The hooker stops screwing you when you're dead.
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Come now, not all lawyers are shysters and scumbags. It is only a small group of them that make the other 5% look bad.
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Or don't support any of it and get your music at places like Ektoplazm http://www.ektoplazm.com/ [ektoplazm.com] then you don't have to give a fuck about any problems some artist might have with entertainment companies.
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On the one hand we have a prolific entity that hides behind a mouse head and makes tons of money ripping off other people's ideas..
On the other hand, there's Deadmau5.
The richer one lobbies Congress to extend copyright protection - may it get properly skewered.
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Enlightenment strikes (Score:3)
Thanks, Disney!
Re:This is what the US has become (Score:5, Insightful)
To fight Disney on anything mouse related is just dumb
What???? So as Disney is the biggest, baddest mouse then noone should fight them?
What if disney decided they wanted to license mousetraps or pest control companies?
Trademark law generally allows entities in different areas to have similiar trademarks as long as they are non overlaping.
Fighting them (although because of their size will be difficult) should be encouraged.
Ignoring for a moment that Mickey Mouse should be public domain by now, allowing companies blanket use
of generic things like "the mouse", "windows", "the like button", "the buy it now button", etc... is a quick way to have
megacorporations eliminate what little remains of competition.
Re: This is what the US has become (Score:1)
He should have changed it some, did you see the pictures of the footprints?
On top of all this he started by using songs he had no rights to... Now that his money is involved he's all about it? He wouldn't be where he is if he paid for every song he used...
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Agree. They should be fought. Their copyright extension act is unconstitutional as it violates equal protection of laws. However, the oligarchical collectivists enjoy total control over the laws in the USSA Police state.
Deadmouse is, however, an un-original riff ripping repetitive douche and would be a bad rallying point for this cause.
A good treatment of US crappyright law is here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C... [wikipedia.org]
Generally totally favors drug, software and media companies and screws everyone else.
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Copyright and trademarks are different concepts, with different laws applying to each. Most trademarks are ineligible for copyright protection, for example. Oh, and trademarks can be registered in the U.S. for a particular purpose only. Feel free to read what is the scope of Disney's mickey mouse trademarks.
Re: This is what the US has become (Score:2)
The trouble is that Disney will argue that the proposed Deadmau5 trademark is in their line of business - videos and the music industry. At the end of the day, you have to acknowledge that there is considerable similarity between the Mickey's silhouette and the Deadmau5 head. Whether the similarities are close enough to cause confusion in the marketplace is at the heart of this complaint. There is another factor at play, too. If it can be shown that then trade dress is genericized -- that is, consumers don
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That image in particular has as close to zero chance for confusion as anything. The color is different, the ear size and placement is different, and the white areas are way different.
A more stylized version like this [google.com] is closer, but the white areas are still very distinctive.
I can see where an image _derived_ from his mark (by removing the white areas) could be confusable with a Disney mark, even though the ears are different. But the mark itself seems pretty non-ambiguous to me.
On the other hand, I am not a
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Not saying I like it but I think his outfit is fine. Why is his logo black though if his outfit is red?
If his logo would have also been red he probably would have never attracted the disney police.
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The first recordings that included Mickey Mouse should be in the public domain at this point, yes, but there's no reason whatsoever why Mickey Mouse as a trademark couldn't and shouldn't remain valid in the fields for which it has been registered, if it remains in use. Trademarks != copyrights.
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You're mixing up things.
The original Mickey Mouse movies are indeed old enough to be in the public domain, based on the principles of copyright.
This doesn't necessarily mean the character Mickey Mouse, or its likeness, should be in the public domain as well.
Even less so for trademarks, which do not have a set expiry date: a trademark is yours from the moment you start using it, until you stop using it. It doesn't necessarily have to be registered - though that does make defending it easier. Also, unlike cop
Apple effect (Score:1)
typical jobs/disney attitude.
I can screw you but you can't.
Re:Apple effect (Score:5, Insightful)
And Disney is screwing everyone alright by lobbying for the copyright extension from 2000 to 2020, new stuff entering into public domain frozen and suspended for 20 years, and the last automatically public domain material is stuck at 1923, for 20 years, and I can sit here twirl my thumbs waiting for that. Because of Mickey Mouse, I can't freely read scientific stuff published in 1924, like organic chemistry things, or even vacuum tube things. Fuck Disney. If it were up to Disney and the bloodsuckers like them, intellectual property management firms, they'd modify copyright law to have perpetual copyright, or practically perpetual. But the fact is, that the principle still stands, that copyright is only temporary, and eventually everything enters the public domain, even if Disney has succeeded in lobbying to pervert the laws to make copyright last practically forever, or almost forever. The original copyright term in the US was 14 years, renewable to 28 years total. Eventually we'll have copyright that lasts "only" 1325 years, and then I will really need a lot of patient thumb twirling before something finally enters public domain. As long as we keep the principle, that intellectual property is ultimately public domain, and private only temporarily, it's all good.
Re:Apple effect (Score:4, Insightful)
Question is, how do we win round 2 .. which is coming soon. Works start falling out of copyright in 2019, Disney will and other corps will move to protect their monopolies. How can we stop that? Public action stopped things like SOPA.
The term "intellectual property" is I believe a misnomer. There is first of all no innate right to intellectual property. The right to own a copyright is no different than the right to drive on the roads, you have to be given the right by the government on the basis of meeting certain requirements. This is very different from a fundamental or innate right. You have an innate right to free speech, it is not something the government gives you ..it's something you are born with. For example, if you own a physical object, you have the innate right not to have that object taken from you. But the US founding fathers saw that a person had no such innate right when it comes to inventions and art. Ideas are not your property once you describe them. That is why the constitution says that such monopolies on ideas should be granted by Congress *ONLY* IF IT SPURS THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE USEFUL ARTS. It is very different from freedom of speech, which you have regardless of the effect on society, a person has no such innate right to monopolize their own inventions and art.
According to the constitution Congress has the right .. "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries."
According to that text, it's clear the current Supreme Court is shirking its responsibility by allowing excessive copyright and patent terms. Excessive copyright terms don't meet the fundamental constitutional requirement of advancing the useful arts and sciences. Disney made a lot of money by taking advantage of the expired copyrights of traditional stories such as sleeping beauty, beauty and the beast etc. I mean even The Lion King is a retelling of Hamlet by William Shakespeare. Did Disney compensate Shakespeare for stealing his story??? If Shakespeare's estate still owned the copyright of Hamlet, Disney would not have been able to make Hamlet. This is clearly proof that the useful arts and sciences are being hindered by excessive copyright terms. The first US copyright laws had only a few years in length .. and that was in a time where it was much harder to market one's work throughout the country and make enough money in a short time.
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Why do I have an innate right to own property? Is it only because it is a cultural norm? If I lived in a culture where, say, land is so plentiful, it doesn't make sense for any one person to own it. Would I still have an innate right to own that land?
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You own the food you swallowed unless they force you to regurgitate it, and then you don't own that either. Usually, in a society you have your own underwear, unless your girlfriend steals it from you, in which case you don't really own that either, but you have your coat, your knife, that are personal property, then also your house or your tent, even under a nomadic way of life. Nomads don't have land as property because they have vast amounts of it, and usually none of it is very fertile, or agriculture i
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You don't have an innate right to anything, however you have innate desires for rights like control over your property up to and including your own body. Society has organised such that we have set aside a portion of our resources to defend these "rights" collectively and make them a notional fact of life in that society.
We pay taxes to defend our "rights" from our neighbours. In your erstwhile sharing economies, it was still collective contributions to the good of the whole and people that didn't want to c
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One wonders why Congress doesn't drop the pretense, take the suitcases full of money, and vote a law extending copyright exclusively for Disney-related properties. Other works would drop in the public domain after a few decades as they should, and everyone would be happier.
Working Disney link (Score:2, Informative)
http://video.disney.com/watch/ghosts-n-stuff-re-micks-4cc34ca4636bec7bd7bd38a3
the link
Stevenson estate (Score:3)
Look at Pirates of the Caribbean and Jake and the Never Land Pirates. Why is Disney trying to make pirates look sympathetic?
On the other hand, there was Muppet Treasure Island, and only six years later Disney went ahead and rebooted it as Treasure Planet. Would Disney have done so if it had to pay royalties to the estate of Robert Louis Stevenson?
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... or the Grimm brothers, or Hans Christian Andersen. In fact is Disney any different than Deadmau5? Most of what they made it big on was other people's work.
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The Grimm brothers themselves were collectors and aggregators of oral tradition stories. They certainly never pretended that they wrote the stories in their collections. That is part of what makes their story collections so rich.
Doesn't look down to me. (Score:4, Informative)
http://video.disney.com/watch/... [disney.com]
Although it may be soon slashdotted.
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The URL still works. I don't know if Disney has a link to the URL, but the URL itself is still active.
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How to avoid this sort of infringement? (Score:3)
Lennon said that Harrison could easily have tweaked the melody enough so the similarity to the old hit "He's So Fine" wouldn't be an issue, but he was either lazy or stubborn.
But if Harrison had really forgotten about "He's So Fine" between when he wrote "My Sweet Lord" and the release of All Things Must Pass, then how could he have changed it? What are songwriters supposed to do to prevent accidental infringement from happening?
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It's almost certain the band had innocently re-invented the same sequence of notes.
How do you come to a determination of "almost certain"? It would seem just as likely that they stuck it in there because, as Wikipedia writes, "Until this high-profile case, "Kookaburra"'s standing as a traditional song combined with the lack of visible policing of the song's rights by its composer had led to the general public perception that the song was within the public domain.[30][31]"
What's ridiculous is that such an old song by a long-since dead person is still under copyright.
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its not the first think I think of, it resembles any cartoon mouse head in history, fact that disney has impregnated your brain to instantly recognize 3 circles as their trade mark charter makes me sad for you
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Oh seriously. Popular culture being what it is, that 3 circles is Mickey's head. To argue otherwise is to deny reality.
Stop repeating yourself. Stop repeating yourself. (Score:2)
Apparently, Disney was [...] hosting a video containing a remix of music which Zimmerman claims ownership of. Not only that, but the Deadmau5 logo was prominently displayed next to said video. [...] As it turns out, Disney is hosting a Deadmau5 video on their website, without permission.
So is there one video, or two?
Re:Stop repeating yourself. Stop repeating yoursel (Score:5, Informative)
I was the one that submitted the article. Looks like the editor really worked it over pretty good (as they are wont to do). I don't mind him rewording what I wrote, but I don't much agree with the way he moved things around, messed with the formatting, and merged my own writing with the quotes of the original piece.
What you're seeing is a result of that.
Normally I'd side with anyone but Disney, but. (Score:1, Flamebait)
Normally I would side with anyone but Disney. From criminal copyright extension acts, to aggressive MPAA, RIAA support, to supporting trash like DMCA and even bribing the US police state to craft up illegal monopolistic oligarchical collectivist trash like the Sonny Bono Copyright Extension act which crafted an illegal unconstitutional law (by equal protection of laws) to extend the copyright of Mickey Mouse and Disney related trash which incidentally was initially STOLEN by Walt from Ub Iwerks.
I've been l
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When I first saw Deadmau5 the first thing I thought of was a comedy show starring Johnny Vegas in which one (silent)character called Cartoon Head wears a mouse head throughout. Then I thought of Mickey only because he's a cartoon mouse as well.
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Outrage! (Score:1)
Wait until California's Congressmen hear about this outrage. I predict that in 2 days, we'll see a bill in front of Obama which puts all copyrights and trademarks owned by non-corporations directly into the public domain.
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Uhhh... if they have any sense, they will try to keep this quiet.
Two words: Prior art.
Disney has no respect for copyright-except theirs (Score:5, Interesting)
At any rate, he rarely goes TOO the parks, but was taking family visiting one time and what does he hear playing in Epcot, but one of his -unpurchased- songs. To my knowledge he is still fighting them. While not as big as Deadmau5, it makes it blatantly obvious that as a corporation Disney wants copyright control and DRM to protect itself but cares nothing for anyone else they drop a mouse turd on.
Re:Disney has no respect for copyright-except thei (Score:5, Informative)
Yep, that's typical behavior for Disney. A friend of mine does contract work for Disney. One of his projects was specifically for a mural on one of their theme park rides, and the contract limited Disney's rights to use it to only that ride. Some time later, my friend went to see Disney on Ice... and there's his mural being used as a backdrop. His agent sends them a letter informing them of their infringement. First they claim the artwork is not the one my friend did. Agent sends photographic evidence. They then claim the contract gave them the rights to use it for Disney on Ice. Agent sends contract with appropriate sections highlighted. They then ignore the agent's communications until legal action is threatened. They then finally send a huge check and a contract amendment. This process takes months. It's happened more than once, too. He basically has to periodically visit all Disney's parks and view all their output to keep an eye out for infringement. He gets to write it off, but still, he shouldn't have to. Standard operating procedure for Disney, wilfully misusing the work of others and stonewalling their inquiries. Like they say, you don't get rich writing checks.
Ah yes, -- Disney (Score:2)
The usurpator, revisionist, extremist (hey!).
Bob's you Uncle (Score:4, Funny)
My advice to Zimmermann: call your uncle Bob, and threaten some serious protest songs.
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Where are the mod points when I need them. Sad day when nobody even at /. knows who Robert Zimmermann is.
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What Disney character is named "deadmau5"?
Re:No pity for him (Score:5, Funny)
No, it's cool. Deadmau5 is the last of the Deadmaus. Deadmau 0-3 were destroyed by terrorists. Deadmau4 was sent back in time to help fight the first Shadow War. Deadmau5 is Earths last, best hope for funk.
Yawn (Score:1)
Mickey Mouse should be in Public Domain... (Score:3)
While I understand the similarity to the Mickey ears, people are highly unlikely to confuse this guy with Mickey Mouse or with Disney.
That being said, Mickey Mouse should be in the public domain by now. Disney keeps "donating" to enough politicians that every time their copyright is about to expire they extend it. Copyright law was originally designed to give a company the opportunity to earn a profit on their creation but the tradeoff was that the works would become public. It was balanced such that companies were forced to innovate. Now we have lifetime monopolies that can last several generations....
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Copyright and trademark aren't the same thing. Don't mix them up. It makes the argument sound silly.
Heavy Metal Smiley Spaceship looks like Deadmau5 (Score:1)
(The 1981 release of Heavy Metal, lest there be confusion)
Prior art bitches (Score:1)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P... [wikipedia.org]
Mickey Mouse was stolen to begin with. Fuck em.
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Disney isn't in the dance club DJ business so despite the similarity in trademarks there is no direct competition between them that could cause market confusion. Deadmau5 doesn't get airtime on mainstream radio so Radio Disney doesn't count either.
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Re: DJ (Score:5, Informative)
Deadmau5 is a producer not a DJ. A DJ plays other peoples music by beat matching two songs, hopefully in similar keys following the circle of fifths; many however do not even do this.
Deadmau5 actualley has an almost venomous hatred for DJs stating that most of them are "fucking cunts" and put him to sleep if he ever has to watch them live.
I looked for a picture of his studio that was posted online a few years ago when he was first getting big, but was unable to find it. It is large room with hardware synths, compressors, effects boxes, etc. Deadmau5 creates all of his own sounds not using anything pre recorded so that he has own unique sound. When he goes on tour or leaves home for an extended period of time he even has his assistant take everything apart so that he has to put it all back togeather when he gets back so as not to become rusty.
In his live shows he has massive amounts of loops and tracks that he never releases to the public that he can use so that his shows are fresh different almost every time, unlike most bands that i have seen which tend to play the same setlist at almost every show on a given tour.
Deadmau5 is a musician and not a DJ, although producer is probably the more correct label .
http://trainspottr.com/music/i... [trainspottr.com]
Re: DJ (Score:4, Interesting)
And he is a huge geek, with tattoos of early arcade video games, and at least a fair bit of electronics and general maker know how. Most of his mouse heads have fans for ventilation and cameras and screens (cause the angles are wrong for easily looking down at the board), and he designed and built the first ones. I think he still designs them (if they change), but he has a company actually make them now if I recall... And hooking up all those racks of equipment goes beyond just plug port A into port B. I feel like I saw something that indicated that he has some programming ability too. If he was older he would probably be/have been a /.er
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In his live shows he has massive amounts of loops and tracks that he never releases to the public that he can use so that his shows are fresh different almost every time
Deadmau5 himself says otherwise: "We all hit play" [createdigitalmusic.com]
Re:Joel is a snivelling little twit... (Score:4, Interesting)
Disney has a "family friendly" image to lose. Joel doesn't. There is one side that can lose a lot of its fanbase for mudslinging. And another one that can gain a lot of cred for "sticking it to da man".
Having a ton of lawyers means jack in a battle that's not fought in court but in the PR room.
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This is blocked.
http://video.disney.com/watch/... [disney.com]
This works...
http://video.disney.com/watch/... [disney.com]
Sound like wilful infringement to me...
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Disney has a "family friendly" image to lose. Joel doesn't. There is one side that can lose a lot of its fanbase for mudslinging. And another one that can gain a lot of cred for "sticking it to da man".
Having a ton of lawyers means jack in a battle that's not fought in court but in the PR room.
I had no idea who this Deadmou5 guy was until today. I searched on his name, saw that logo and concluded the instant I saw it that the Disney company is retarded if they think that their Mickey Mouse trademark looks anything like his logo [pickywallpapers.com] (which is what this is about, right? trademarks, not copyright). Even a five year old would not confuse them. Disney seem to be suing anybody whose logo or trade mark looks even remotely like Mickey Mouse just on the off chance they find a judge who is brain dead enough to