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Deadmau5 Accuses Disney of Pirating His Music

Posted by timothy on from the could-have-become-a-doctor dept.

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.

3 of 137 comments (clear)

  1. Disney has no respect for copyright-except theirs by wbr1 · · Score: 5, Interesting
    My uncle move to Orlando in the 80s, Still lives there. He is a professional musician, and submitted many songs to the Disny megalith (a few were purchased, I think for the Gummy Bears show).

    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.

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    Silence is a state of mime.
  2. Re:Joel is a snivelling little twit... by Opportunist · · Score: 3, 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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    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  3. Re: DJ by Randle_Revar · · Score: 3, 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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    Climate Progress - Hell and High Water