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Disney Asking Employees To Help Fund Copyright Lobbying (arstechnica.com)
NormalVisual writes: Disney is now asking its employees to chip in to promote the company's copyright agenda via the company's political action committee, DisneyPAC. CEO Bob Iger has sent a letter to the company's employees lauding the company's success with the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement and the recent Supreme Court decision regarding the video service Aereo -- an Internet service claiming the right to retransmit [Disney's] broadcast signals without paying copyright or retransmission consent fees. Iger also expresses the company's hope that DisneyPAC will be able to influence Congress in regards to lowering corporate tax rates. Not surprisingly, the company refuses to comment on the initiative.
get the new foreign workers to pay for it all as part of their contracts.
why on earth would employees want to fund this? it's a company issue, not an employee issue
For an employer to tell their employees to do or take a political stance?
The idea that legislation needs "funding" is odious in unto itself.
One of the first major casualties. Who/what's next?
Lets just be clear, Disney's stated goal towards Copyright Law is to Subvert the U.S. Constitution and see that the clause where works eventually pass into Public Domain (a benefit the public is to receive in return for giving Copyright Protection to Authors) never actually applies.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
For an employer to tell their employees to do or take a political stance?
From the summary: "Disney is now asking its employees to chip in ...".
While a corporation should and needs to protect it's assets and petition sitting governments on various, I think it's a) inappropriate to monetarily support candidates and b) coerce employees to support and contribute to the cause. In the '80s, when I was working for IBM, they sent a letter to all (Canadian, at least) employees telling them to support NAFTA which I (and many of my coworkers) thought was inappropriate but the company felt that it was in its best interests to do this.
The situation is even more despicable when it comes to Disney, who clearly don't seem to care about their employees and really not good corporate citizens. There maybe honour & prestige working for Disney but if there is an option to reduce their costs, they will clearly take it, current employees be damned.
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
If you don't believe in your employer's mission, quit, but profit or no, there _are_ people at Disney who work for their art and the joy it brings.
Even without the neckbeards, the legion of screetching kids wanting to see the new premanufactured disney princess movie 2.0: you can(not) marry the prince will give em enough money and power to buy the US government over and over again.
full disclosure: I don't even ask for co-workers to fund my kids fund raisers, as that's an imposition on the workplace. 'Specially as I'm a manager. As the *employer* is making the ask, this isn't ethical. The bit about making this easy to do via your paycheck means that HR can, and likely does, see who contributes. The paycheck deduction makes this really, really 'wrong.' I'd actually be ~ok with the 'please consider contributing,' but not not part of the payroll process. Fuller disclosure : if I needed the job, I'd say f the mores and principles, and probably check the box and contribute. Enough to show support. While I quietly looked for other employment. --- off topic ish: that Disney's policies replace resident workers in the country where Disney makes its home, and reaps benefits unavailable to them in a lot of countries, is amoral. And understandable. As corporations are driven to maximize profits, and CEOs , to have risen to where they are, a lot of times become disconnected from feeling. I'm betting that the same guy who replaced workers didn't think once about asking the remaining employees to spend their $ on a PAC.
Next they will say you better not vote trump if you like to keep your job!
Why would any employee help a company that has done nothing but shit all over them? I'd be surprised if there weren't quite a few actively contributing to violating copyright. Really, this one way asshattedness that corporations constantly show is completely exhausting.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
As long as they take advantage of slave labor being practically legal in some other part of the world, people should take advantage of copying media being legal in some other part of the world.
Did you know, Charles Perrault's family, etc. all, have not received a cent of royalties from the Disney corporation for their copying of their stories.
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
More specifically, fuck Disney.
Here is my ideal IP solution. All IP (patents and copyright) must state a value. Any value at all. The owner of the IP then pays intellectual property tax a some rate. If someone else really wants that IP, they can pay the owner the stated amount and the IP becomes public domain.
This solves all kinds of issues including orphaned works, patent trolls, and the likes of Disney tying up copyrighted works that should have entered the public domain decades ago. Well, maybe Disney could still tie up copyrighted works, but at least it would cost them to the benefit of tax payers.
Just sayin'
If spoiled American workers don't want the job . . .
Bah! True neck beards will download the movie from bittorrent.
I thought foreigners who wanted the lobby the government had to register?
source: Wife. I've read the pamphlets.
...as we continue to outsource as many of your jobs as possible. Buy DisneyABCPixar: Buy Outsourced.
imagine a soft, buttery paw gently pressing down onto a sleeping soldier's face. forever.
do they think all those outsourced jobs in and from india / china really give a single fuck about copyright?
Sadly, as right thinking as your reaction is most /. readers don't agree with your take with regard to Disney's actions here and don't have the guts to admit they don't agree. Their unprincipled obeisance to Disney's power is unlike some posters to the Ars Technica (Condé Nast) forum on this story who object publicly such as user "SmokeTest":
Power-for-power's-sake supporting /.ers will pay to see the next Star Wars movie, visit Disney theme parks, buy Disney-licensed merchandise of all kinds and thus feed the system that oppresses the world via copyright and TPP. This fight goes far beyond the term of copyright both in who is affected and specific powers multinational corporations seek to gain.
Digital Citizen
I'm not worried, I was joking, but yeah that's sad actually
Twinstiq, game news
All big companies do this. I just ignore them. Their interests never align with mine, even though they would like me to think that they do. Perhaps if the ties-that-bind were a little bit more stable, with more common interests between employee-employer, I might feel differently. Otherwise, it's just a waste of money.
Doesn't Iger mean ogre in German?
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
get the new foreign workers to pay for it all as part of their contracts.
To add to that -- lower H-1B wages means less disposable income to pay back to Disney for copyright fight.
Cuts both way, doesn't it Disney?
On the other hand, Disney as no need to be asking for handouts as with their new overseas workforce they're saving a bundle. Why don't they just redirect those saved payroll dollars to their legal department?
... we also had one homosexual guy that would make a speech at the kickoff meeting each time about how United Way was basically evil and we shouldn't give them a dime. The reasoning was that the United Way funded the boy scouts and the boy scouts didn't allow gay members.
I wonder if he changed his opinion when the Scouts decided to allow gays or if he still hates them and looked for other new targets to hate on. The trouble with SJW in my opinion is that they only destroy, they never create. For example they want to destroy the Scouts but they won't create another organization that did the good the Scouts did. They instead move on to destroy the next group that offends them. Like locusts.
Because greed. Duh.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
What's the hallmark of a dictatorship? When technology is outlawed that could allow you to see certain content you're not supposed to see.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Could you name the things Unions push that don't negatively affect not only their members but everyone who never ever bothered to want to deal with them? That would make them equal.
And from there you may then tell us what makes them worse!
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Globalism is great. If, and only if, it benefits the corporation. Or could you tell me why I can't buy a BluRay in South East Asia where they cost a buck a piece?
It's ok for them to ship our jobs there. But it's not ok for us to ship the products made here. Care to explain that?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Disney still has "employees"? I thought they fired everyone for H1-B visas.
Then why am I still employed at almost $100,000 annually to make sure things run? I've been doing it since 1984.
Your screed sounds sour, bitter, and fearful. Get your professional shit together and you may find that like me at age 59, you can still make big money in high tech. You have to 1) know what the fuck you are doing and 2) know how to get along with people, even people you do not like and for whom you have no respect. You also have to understand that 1) work is NOT a playpen, even if they build you one with foosball, climbing walls, free food, open office plan, and puffy bag chairs to spend your days in and that 2) nobody is going to care if you get your feelings hurt when you get banged up by management for not doing your job.
You may be surprised to find out just exactly how much more somebody with 40 years experience in a business knows about that business that you, from lack of experience, have absolutely no idea about. Not everything is in a text book, and life lessons usually come with no instructions. Survive that reality in industry for 40 years and get back to us.
My company solicits PAC donations, too. I never really thought it was a big deal and assumed that all large companies did the same.
Companies aren't allowed to contribute to PACs, after all, and those of use that work in companies are all kind of in the same boat. In my case maybe I want my company to hire lobbyist to oppose the required use of some type of 1200 MPa material in, say, mirror mounting brackets where there's no engineering justification.
If my company's PAC were evil, then I'd think twice. Barring that, though, when my industry succeeds, I succeed.
--Jim (me)
No penalty against erroneous and false DMA takedown and copyright infringement notices to websites and individuals makes me feel as if I am an accomplice in crime by avoiding consumption of pirated services and betting my money in the hand of companies that serve erroneous and false DMA takedown and copyright infringement notices.
It's ok for them to ship our jobs there. But it's not ok for us to ship the products made here. Care to explain that?
Yes, they are already poor, starving and begging for *any* job. They are unlikely to agitate for political change and no one should enjoy freedom unless they are obscenely wealthy.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
and spoiled American workers will be made to train their H1-B replacements!
Just sayin'
Teach them wrong, as a joke.
Wanna buy a shirt?
https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
Just when you think Disney can't get any scummier, they take it to another level...
>You neckbeards also work for NASA?
Several, I imagine.
Probably not GP in particular, but someone decided to defend "Neckbeards do not run anything"