Slashdot Mirror
Deadmau5 Accuses Disney of Pirating His Music
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.
on the one hand, we have a guy who wears a mouse head, dances, and hits "play" and gets paid major for using other peoples music
than, there is disney
what side am I supposed to be on here???
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
Thanks, Disney!
typical jobs/disney attitude.
I can screw you but you can't.
http://video.disney.com/watch/ghosts-n-stuff-re-micks-4cc34ca4636bec7bd7bd38a3
the link
http://video.disney.com/watch/...
Although it may be soon slashdotted.
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.
I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
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.
Not saying it's right but he has nothing to beat Disney with... I'm a fan of him since he had no money on YouTube. . If you take out the lights it's the same shape.. It's like trying to beat apple with a apple logo lol
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...
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?
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
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...
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.
"Wait. Something's happening. It's opening up! My God, it's full of apricots!"
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...
Generally totally favors drug, software and media companies and screws everyone else.
Legalize the constitution. Think for yourself question authority.
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't automatically relate the mouse silhouette to Mickey, it may be possible to invalidate Disney trademarks. The result would be a free-for-all that would allow companies to offer their own bigeared mouse characters in the US. (The DMCA takedown complaint is a different animal that's not directly related to the trademark challenge, unless Disney is planning to claim that they couldn't see the difference and believed that Mickey and the stage outfit of an EDM producer).
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?
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?
So in a world where musicians are supposed to make money touring and treat CDs as promotional materials, what is a producer supposed to do to put a roof over his head?
Perhaps this is exactly why they created a "Re-Micks", as now there is definitely some overlap!
Comment removed based on user account deletion
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.
Silence is a state of mime.
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
The usurpator, revisionist, extremist (hey!).
So corporations can rip people off all they want, as long as those people suck? Man, no wonder there's no good music these days.
My advice to Zimmermann: call your uncle Bob, and threaten some serious protest songs.
.
Deadmau5 is clearly taking very strong inspiration from Disney and Takashi Murakami.
"Ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space..."
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.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
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 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 lawyer, and it will unfortunately not surprise me at all if one manages to convince a judge that they are too similar.
Uhhh... if they have any sense, they will try to keep this quiet.
Two words: Prior art.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
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.
What Disney character is named "deadmau5"?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
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....
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.
It doesn't hurt to be nice.
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.
Slow Down Cowboy! It's been 1 hour, 47 minutes since you last successfully posted a comment
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.
Not to mention that Disney is so big it does not know what it is doing... For example,
This is blocked.
http://video.disney.com/watch/...
This works...
http://video.disney.com/watch/...
Sound like wilful infringement to me...
A quick google search reveals I'm not the first to note the similarity.
(The 1981 release of Heavy Metal, lest there be confusion)
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
Climate Progress - Hell and High Water
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 copyright, a trademark must be defended at all times or you may risk losing it. Allowing a company to use your trademark for some time and then going after it (like patent trolls like to do with patented stuff) makes you risk losing your trademark rights altogether.
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.
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 (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 rule in their favour. The US must have a surplus of such judges if Disney did the math and concluded that this is a workable legal strategy. What's next? Sue anybody whose trade mark contains three circles whose centrers are arranged in an Isosceles triangle and who partially overlap? From a court transcript: Why no your honor, Having gone to Harward Law School I am actually quite literate and I know the big circle has "Billy Bob's Auto Parts" written in it and I also noticed that the two smaller ones have a picture of a pick-up truck and a buxom red-neck girl in them but we at the Disney corporation still feel that due to the arrangement of the three circles in an Isosceles triangle and their overlapping nature, that this logo could easily be confused with an image of Mickey Mouse thus confusing consumers.
Only to idiots, are orders laws.
-- Henning von Tresckow
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"
Oh seriously. Popular culture being what it is, that 3 circles is Mickey's head. To argue otherwise is to deny reality.
Yeah he started doing a lot of web development stuff, and some other sorts of coding, but as he started to do more music it dropped off. I wish I could find the interview where he talks about it, but it is pretty awesome all the stuff he has tinkered with.
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.
A successful API design takes a mixture of software design and pedagogy.