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."

Comments

That's a LUCKY rabbit

[mfh]

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.

Re:That's a LUCKY rabbit

[uncoveror]

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.

Almost a copy

[broothal]

Notice the striking resemblance between Early Mickey Mouse and Oswald the lucky Rabbit

So an IP contract led to Mickey

[bobalu]

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

It profits a man nothing ...

[expro]

"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.

Who stole who's IP?

[EccentricAnomaly]

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)

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?

Re:Who stole who's IP?

[westlake]

Will Disney ever stop taking credit from other people who deserve it?

Ub Iwerks was the superior technician, but Disney was hell-bent on taking animation beyond novelty acts like Flip The Frog. Fiddlesticks and the Colorful Mediocrity of Ub Iwerks

There is a reason why a younger generation of story-tellers like Brad Bird look to Disney, to Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnson, The Nine Old Men who took the art of animation where Iwerks could not go.

Re:New Meaning to Corporate Slavery

[damsa]

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.

Anim'ls

[Doc Ruby]

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.

not a bunny...a cartoon bunny

[Simonetta]

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.)