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Disney Trades Person for Intellectual Property

Posted by Zonk on Sat Feb 11, 2006 08:40 AM
from the i-know-some-people-i'd-like-to-trade dept.
Media Patents
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."
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  • 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? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by EccentricAnomaly (451326) on Saturday February 11 2006, @10:21AM (#14694282) Homepage
      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?
    • Now that they own Oswald, no one can sue saying that Mickey is an unauthorized derivative work based on Oswald. He obviously is. I am surprised that there wasn't a suit like that decades ago.

  • Disgusting (Score:5, Funny)

    by eldavojohn (898314) * <my/.username@@@gmail.com> on Saturday February 11 2006, @08:43AM (#14693955) Homepage Journal
    (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.
    • For a second I was going to point you in Oracle's direction. Then I actually read the freaking article. Nothing like trading someone for four rounds of golf,olympic highlights, and a stupid bunny.

      • Except for the fact that it is a misleading headline....

        How is this a "trade"? Al Michaels signed a contract. Disney adhered to their obligations under that contract. Al Michaels requested that he be released from his obligations. Disney requested compensation for that release and NBC paid compensation.

        It would be a trade if Disney sold Al Michaels contract to NBC, and Al Michaels had no recourse except to refuse to work.

      • not a bunny...a cartoon bunny (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Simonetta (207550) on Saturday February 11 2006, @01:59PM (#14695283)
        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.)

    • Disgusting? (Score:2, Informative)

      by jcorno (889560)
      He asked to be traded. They didn't walk into his office and say, "We traded you for a cartoon character, pack your shit and start walking." He wanted to work for NBC, NBC wanted him, and this was ABC's price for letting him go.

      • Re:Disgusting? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by sdo1 (213835) on Saturday February 11 2006, @09:20AM (#14694067) Journal
        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
        • I think he and Madden make a pretty decent football announcing team

          Ehh, they're OK, but Buck and Aikman are the best now. Everyone's trying to catch up to Fox these days on football. And the ESPN teams really are awful.

          If Michaels is worth Oswald then I'd think that Buck is worth at least an Elmer Fudd, and Aikman is Daffy Duck-class, maybe even Roger Rabbit.

    • Blowing this a little out of proportion? (Score:4, Informative)

      by artemis67 (93453) on Saturday February 11 2006, @09:47AM (#14694155) Homepage
      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.
        • No. They would have had nothing. Mickey Mouse and much of their earlier (and even later) works would be in the public domain. So yes, in a way they would still be able to use such characters, but so would anybody else.

          The value of Mickey Mouse to Disney is mainly in Disney's monopoly over its use (or the licensing of its use). Without that monopoly, anybody could potentially make money via the use of the Mickey Mouse image without giving Disney a cent. So that Mickey Mouse backpack your kids might want may

  • trade ya (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 11 2006, @08:43AM (#14693956)
    I'll trade you my little brother for the rights to that piece of code you've got there.

  • What's the big deal? (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Sounds like a fair trade to me.

  • Oh man... (Score:5, Funny)

    by qw0ntum (831414) on Saturday February 11 2006, @08:47AM (#14693967) Journal
    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.

    • I wonder what it feels like to know that you are worth a cartoon character?
      You actually mean: I wonder how it feels like to know that you are worth a cartoon character, four rounds of golf, and olympic highlights?
      • Almost makes you think they did it just to piss Michaels off, hmm? They could have just as easily asked them for nothing.

        ESPN (parent company -- Disney, to the chagrin of all sports fan with a soul) paid $8.8 billion for the rights to broadcast football games on Monday night for the next eight years. Al Michaels, one of the preeminent broadcasters in sports, agreed to announce the games, then decided he didn't want to.

        That devalued Disney's investment significantly. My guess is this is Eisner's way o

        • Re:It's actually (Score:5, Informative)

          by sdo1 (213835) on Saturday February 11 2006, @09:33AM (#14694110) Journal
          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
        • Well, first think is Eisner is out at Disney. Robert Iger is now the CEO (for about the last year I think).

          I don't really understand the problem here. A bit strange thats for sure, but I'm not seeing anything to get worked up about. Michaels was under contract with ABC/ESPN/Disney but decided he wanted to go to work with his friends who moved to NBC. NBC wanted him. "They could have just as easily asked them for nothing". Sure I guess they could, but why would they? I guess if Kobe Bryant decided

  • Almost a copy (Score:5, Interesting)

    by broothal (186066) <christian@fabel.dk> on Saturday February 11 2006, @08:48AM (#14693968) Homepage Journal
    Notice the striking resemblance between Early Mickey Mouse [google.dk] and Oswald the lucky Rabbit [google.dk]

    • Re:Almost a copy (Score:5, Informative)

      by fufubag (935599) on Saturday February 11 2006, @08:52AM (#14693976)
      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 (Score:4, Insightful)

        by rolfwind (528248) on Saturday February 11 2006, @08:58AM (#14693996)
        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.
        • There must have not been enough lawyers back then.
        • You're starting to think like "them".

          Disney's character was an improvement over Oswald's character. That is precisely the behaviour we'd like to encourage if we would want developments to happen. Mozart and Bach anyone?

          The biggest problem with IP as of today is that it doesn't support group development. It was all fine and dandy to patent and copyright stuff in the 18th century where you could invent something just based on your own effort, but today it is very rarely possible any more. Humans need to w
    • Totally different from

      http://forums.wdwmagic.com/archive/index.php?t-101 52.html [wdwmagic.com]

      Disney Sues Over Teddy Bears

      STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) -- The Walt Disney Co. has sued a Swedish importer for copyright infringement and requested the destruction of 25,000 teddy bears it says are illegal replicas of Winnie the Pooh. The stuffed bears, which were made in China, were intercepted by Swedish customs in April and wear the "hunny" loving bear's trademark red shirt, according to a lawsuit filed with the district court in
    • Much like another celebrated cartoon pair. Milton Caniff was working for the NY Daily News when he created Terry and the Pirates. It was wildly successful in syndication; the paper netted millions and Caniff got a ten percent raise.

      Caniff went to the editor and said he thought he was entitled to a piece of the action. The editor pointed out that he was only an employee, the paper owned the copyright, and he could have a nicer desk if he liked. Caniff said OK, best of luck with your comic strip, walked out

      • Much like another celebrated cartoon pair. Milton Caniff was working for the NY Daily News when he created Terry and the Pirates. It was wildly successful in syndication; the paper netted millions and Caniff got a ten percent raise.

        Caniff went to the editor and said he thought he was entitled to a piece of the action. The editor pointed out that he was only an employee,

        I'm no fan of copyright, but the editor has a point here. As an employee, Caniff gets a steady salary and benefits, whether or not he

  • Steve Jobs needs a rabbit for his Apple (Score:5, Funny)

    by postbigbang (761081) on Saturday February 11 2006, @08:52AM (#14693977)
    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 (Score:4, Funny)

    by Jarlsberg (643324) on Saturday February 11 2006, @09:06AM (#14694023) Journal
    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? (Score:5, Informative)

    by sdo1 (213835) on Saturday February 11 2006, @09:08AM (#14694035) Journal
    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

    • Second of all, there was a lot more in the trade than just the cartoon.

      More importantly, it was not even a trade!

      Disney did not go to Al Michaels and say "Pack your bags and report to NBC." Al Michaels requested that he be released from his contract with Disney in order to make a new contract with NBC. Disney and NBC worked out a compensation agreement to compensate Disney for the loss of Al Michaels' services.

      When we talk about "trading" people, it generally means they have little or no choice. Th

  • So an IP contract led to Mickey (Score:3, Interesting)

    by bobalu (1921) on Saturday February 11 2006, @09:09AM (#14694038)

    Interesting, seems the need to re-create a character due to legal IP restrictions led to a huge entertainnment empire.
  • Uhhh, why is there a picture of a vag on the wikipedia page about copyright extensions?

  • huh? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by spiritraveller (641174) on Saturday February 11 2006, @09:21AM (#14694069)
    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 ... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by expro (597113) on Saturday February 11 2006, @09:22AM (#14694073)

    "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.

  • 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?
  • WHAT??

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

    Thanks,
    R.

  • Michaels to Madden: (Score:3, Funny)

    by ThatsNotFunny (775189) on Saturday February 11 2006, @10:05AM (#14694234) Homepage
    "I wish I could quit you..."
  • 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!

  • According to an NBC spokesman... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Chris Mattern (191822) on Saturday February 11 2006, @11:09AM (#14694460)
    ...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
    • 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!
      • So? There were black entertainers kept and traded the same way, not just field labor. I have never been terribly fond of the way professional sports operate either. Look at all of the performance drug scandals, the money deals, the disgusting ammount of money that is made, the relatively small ammount that makes it down to the players, the trading of bodies. Physical labor, performance enhancing drugs, big profit, trading 'players' for bigger profit, nope nothin absolutely sheisty goin on there. :( I a
        • I am far more interested in college sports since the money generated there actually goes back into the college, and there just seems to be a whole lot fewer problems in that whole system too.

          Ironic stance considering college football players don't get paid and can be cut from the team for any reason at all.

    • Re:New Meaning to Corporate Slavery (Score:5, Insightful)

      by sdo1 (213835) on Saturday February 11 2006, @09:25AM (#14694088) Journal
      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
    • 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 on
      • That is sort of the inequity in it. They can force you to sign a contract (if you want the job, you gotta sign), that says you can't leave, you can't work for the competition, etc etc. But you can't tell them you are quitting, because you signed the contract, but they sure as hell can fire your ass. The non compete ones are the worst ones, not only do they own you while you are there, it prevents you from doing your job for anyone else after you leave.

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