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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
http://video.disney.com/watch/...
Although it may be soon slashdotted.
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.
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.
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...
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.
My advice to Zimmermann: call your uncle Bob, and threaten some serious protest songs.
.
The amount.
Duh.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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
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.