.....Republicans continue attack on Disney....


Sen. Josh Hawley’s Move to Strip Disney’s Copyrights Called ‘Blatantly Unconstitutional’

....Sen. Josh Hawley introduced a bill on Tuesday that aims to revoke Disney’s copyrights, as Republicans are seeking to outdo each other in attacking the “woke” corporation.

Hawley’s bill would dramatically rewrite U.S. copyright law, shortening the total term available to all copyright holders going forward by several decades. It would also seek to retroactively limit Disney’s copyrights, effectively stripping the company of much of its intellectual property, in a move that would face several legal obstacles.

“That is a blatantly unconstitutional taking of property without compensation,” said Prof. Paul Goldstein, an intellectual property expert at Stanford Law School.

Hawley’s move comes on the heels of Gov. Ron DeSantis, who signed a bill last month that aims to dissolve the Reedy Creek Improvement District, a 40-square-mile area that Disney controls in Orlando. DeSantis took the action in retaliation for Disney’s opposition to the Parental Rights in Education bill — dubbed “Don’t Say Gay” by its opponents — that restricts classroom discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity.

Both DeSantis and Hawley are seen as potential contenders for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

In a press release announcing the legislation on Tuesday, Hawley said that Disney had benefited from “unnecessarily long copyright monopolies,” and that it is time to end “the age of Republican handouts to Big Business.”

“Thanks to special copyright protections from Congress, woke corporations like Disney have earned billions while increasingly pandering to woke activists,” said Hawley, who once clerked for Chief Justice John Roberts. “It’s time to take away Disney’s special privileges and open up a new era of creativity and innovation.”

The retroactive provision of the bill applies to any entertainment company with a market capitalization above $150 billion. Disney’s market cap is $196 billion.

In 1998, Disney lobbied heavily for the extension of copyright for works made for hire, such that critics dubbed the bill the Mickey Mouse Protection Act. The character first appeared in “Steamboat Willie” in 1928, and was set to enter the public domain in 2003. The act extended the term from 75 years to 95 years. The character — at least, the original black-and-white version — is now set to lose copyright protection on Jan. 1, 2024. (Disney would still retain copyright to later versions of the mouse.) There is no indication that Congress is interested in further extending copyright at this point.

Hawley’s bill would impose a 56-year term on all of Disney’s copyrights retroactively. Prof. Tyler Ochoa, an intellectual property expert at the Santa Clara University School of Law, agreed with Goldstein that that is likely unconstitutional.

“The Supreme Court has held that Congress can extend the term,” Ochoa said. “But if you try to take the term away, that is almost certainly a taking of property.”

The Copyright Act of 1909 set an initial copyright term of 28 years, with an option for a renewal of another 28 years. In 1976, Congress extended the term to the life of the author plus 50 years, later extended to 70 years. That provision is necessary to participate in the Berne Convention — the international treaty on copyrights. If Congress were to go back to a 56-year maximum, it would violate the treaty, potentially incurring monetary penalties or trade sanctions......


attack......continues......?!

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I reject your reality and substitute my own!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/10/2022 09:32PM by NewtonMP2100.

and that it is time to end “the age of Republican handouts to Big Business.”

What other big businesses are on his list?

Hawley is a tool.
And anyone who uses the term "woke" should be horse-whipped.

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GGD
and that it is time to end “the age of Republican handouts to Big Business.”

What other big businesses are on his list?

At least he idiotically admitted this is what Repugs do.

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Saint Cloud, Minnesota, where the weather is wonderful even when it isn't.

He's just trying to keep up (fund raising) with the big boys, maybe even envisions hisownself as a player or Veep candidate.

Right move for the wrong reason.

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It is what it is.

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N-OS X-tasy!
Right move for the wrong reason.

And ....

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$tevie
Hawley is a tool.

Both of you are correct.

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Fox News: Best comedy channel that isn't a comedy channel.

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$tevie
Hawley is a tool.
And anyone who uses the term "woke" should be horse-whipped.

Twice in the same sentence!

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RgrF
He's just trying to keep up (fund raising) with the big boys, maybe even envisions hisownself as a player or Veep candidate.

Indeed…which apparently now requires proposing actions that are blatantly against legal tradition and international treaties as well as the Constitution, which the Right claims to revere, when it doesn’t need to shred it at whim.

I’d say this is pure hucksterism - that he wouldn’t actually pursue this if he somehow (bizarrely!) found himself in a position of power, but you know, these days I’m not so sure.

I hope business is paying attention to what’s boiling up from the depths of the “business-friendly” GOP these days.

Apparently, it’s time for autocracy and for the normalization of abuse of power. Yay GOP.

Gotta say, as much as I despise Hawley, I'm all for rolling back Sunny Bono's misguided handiwork.

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jonny
Gotta say, as much as I despise Hawley, I'm all for rolling back Sunny Bono's misguided handiwork.

If it applies to everyone and not just the Walt's Frozen Head Company.

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Lux Interior

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jonny
Gotta say, as much as I despise Hawley, I'm all for rolling back Sunny Bono's misguided handiwork.

If it applies to everyone and not just the Walt's Frozen Head Company.

Yep, but they can't roll back as far as Hawley's bill would. There are treaty obligations tat the US has signed onto that require longer copyright protection that provided for in his bill.

So just reset all copyright terms to the minimum specified by treaty.

If you make a treaty you can revise a treaty.

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Bill in NC
So just reset all copyright terms to the minimum specified by treaty.

Then you get into the whole compensation for lost property rights. Even if they rolled it back from the 95 years to the 75 years it was before that, owners of the copyrights will lose 20 years of possible revenue. There would be lawsuits for certain if the rollback was either not phased in by something like grandfathering items already under the extended term, or there was no form of compensation included in the law.

However it went, I expect the courts would be busy for years sorting any change.