#united states copyright law
Hawley introducing measure to strip Disney of copyright protections
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) introduced legislation on Tuesday that would strip “woke corporations like Disney” of special protections enabling companies to hold copyright material for decades.
The Copyright Clause Restoration Act would limit copyrighted material to 56 years and apply the new rule retroactively, meaning Disney and other companies could immediately lose some copyright protections if the law were passed.
The measure is the latest Republican attack on Disney, which last month was stripped of its self-governing status at its amusement park in Orlando, Fla., after Gov. Ron DeSantis took issue with the media company for speaking out against the state’s “Don’t Say Gay” law, which prohibits the discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity from kindergarten through third grade.
Hawley’s bill goes after Disney’s long-running list of iconic characters stretching from Mickey Mouse to Marvel superheroes.
Hawley said in a press release that “the age of Republican handouts to Big Business is over.”
All this, because Disney did the bare minimum of performative tolerance, after their previous republican support hurt the bottom line…
Okay so, is this a good thing, a bad thing, or some mix of the two?
Limiting copyrights held by corporations: Good. Unquestionably.
Limiting copyrights generally: Depends. The Tolkien and Doyle estates are pulling one sort of fuckery; the sheer volume of decades-old art that’s difficult to preserve and impossible to make publicly accessible on account of the copyright holder being unknown or uncontactable is itself another kind of fuckery; but making it so an individual creator who’s lucky enough to get consistent income from their work still can throughout their life, and their family still can after their death, is not itself fuckery, and changing that really could be.
Limiting copyrights to punish corporations generally: Um. On board with the concept, got some questions about mechanism.
Limiting copyrights to punish Disney specifically: There’s a reason the most recent copyright term extension is in law nicknamed the Mickey Mouse Copyright Act, and that reason is it was mostly pushed for by Disney, who is also one of the biggest beneficiaries. That extra twenty years of copyright protection certainly hasn’t been helping individual creators any.
Limiting copyrights to punish Disney specifically for pausing political donations to Florida legislators who support hideously bigoted legislation? Not even stopping, just pausing? Fuck off.
Admitting the reasoning is to end government handouts to Big Business? Raise your voice a little, Senator Hawley, I don’t think I quite heard the quiet part you’re shouting…
