Lessig laughs after 52 hours reading a humorous interview with Mickey Mouse. [LWN.net]

From:		Tres Melton <class5@pacbell.net>
To:		editor@lwn.net
Subject:		Lessig laughs after 52 hours reading a humorous interview with Mickey Mouse.
Date:		Sat, 18 Jan 2003 13:02:53 -0800

While reading Professor Lessig's blog I stumbled across this:  Reason Online 
has interviewed Mickey Mouse and 
"Disney's cartoon rodent speaks out on the Eldred decision." 
Mickey's interview includes such jewels such as: "Q: How does it feel
to have your sentence extended by two decades?" -- "A: How do you
think it feels? For almost 70 years, I've only been allowed to do what
the Disney people say I can do. ... " and "In 1971, for instance,
Dan O'Neill got me a part in something called Air Pirates Funnies. It
was great: I got to have sex, I got to use drugs, I got to explore the
whole underground comix scene. It was liberating."

Mickey goes on to discus Disney's lawyers enforcing the laws that Walt
Disney broke when he started it all.  Lest we not forget that Steamboat
Willie -- Mickey's original name -- was a direct parody of Buster Keaton's
Steamboat Bill, right down to the opening music, or The Brothers
Grimm who originally authored such jewels as: Rapunzel, Hänsel
und Gretel, Cinderella, Little Snow-white, and Rumpelstiltskin.

(Not having children, I'm not sure if Disney plagiarized all of these or
just some of them.)


-- 
Tres Melton <class5@pacbell.net>

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Lessig laughs after 52 hours reading a humorous interview with Mickey Mouse.

Posted Jan 23, 2003 6:27 UTC (Thu) by JoeBuck (subscriber, #2330) [Link]

I enjoyed the Reason article too, but the Brothers Grimm were not the original authors of any of the stories that you give them credit for. Rather, they collected traditional European fairy tales that had been around for a long time.

Of course, Disney took Alice in Wonderland less than 90 years after it was written, something that is now illegal.