Comments on: He Said, She Said: Much Ado about Disney

By: John

John — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 15:26:30 +0000

DISNEY STORIES TAKEN FROM THE PUBLIC DOMAIN
Aladdin
Atlantis
Beauty and the Beast
Cinderella
Davy Crockett
The Legend of Sleepy
Hollow
Hercules
The Hunchback of Notre
Dame
The Jungle Book
Oliver Twist
Pinocchio
Robin Hood
Snow White
Sleeping Beauty
The Three Musketeers
Treasure Island
The Wind in the Willows

DISNEY STORIES ADDED TO THE PUBLIC DOMAIN
None

By: Uncle Rob

Uncle Rob — Fri, 25 May 2007 13:17:18 +0000

Well, if there were no copyright protections, we wouldn’t have big music companies. We also wouldn’t have nearly as much music period — at least not broadly available. Patents are 20 years, which is nearly what the econometrics say is the intersection between the incentives to invest in producing something new and the benefits from its broad diffusion. And don’t overlook the other side of a patent or copyright — public access to its inner workings, which allows others to build on it and develop something new of their own. Innovation is an iterative process which depends on both aspects.
And I hate Microsoft as much as the next person, but the benefits for the rest of the economy of a dominant and reasonably efficient operating system (not the best, but that’s the problem with path dependence in network externality-dominated markets) are far far greater than its profits. As for the little guy, he’s screwed under any system, in every country, in all periods.
I miss doing this in person with you.

By: Emily

Emily — Thu, 24 May 2007 23:38:02 +0000

Hi Robert! Thanks for commenting. I think there is a middle road between the amount of protection that Disney would like (infinite and ever-lasting) and the amount of protection that China offers (nil). I am not arguing that rampant counterfeiting is a good thing, but a knee-jerk response in favor of more protection (which we saw coming from the China English-language blogosphere) is also inappropriate.

I also don’t believe that the protections for Disney and other huge corporations (MicroSoft, TimeWarner, BMG) end up profiting the little guy. Let’s take music as an example. Right now, the airwaves are dominated by just a few voices. A system like payola helps the big record labels hold on to their dominance. It also prevents independent musicians from finding an audience. That system can only exist in an environment where the commodity is protected.

If IP protection did not exist, no one would achieve success on the level of Britney Spears, but that might actually be a good thing for most musicians. No single voice would dominate the airwaves and local bands would see an increased market for their music. No one would get mind-bogglingly rich, but a lot of people would still be able to support themselves by doing what musicians do - playing shows.

Also, Us Weekly would go out of business. That means that, if Al Gore is right, the Republic would be better off.

By: Uncle Rob

Uncle Rob — Thu, 24 May 2007 13:21:26 +0000

I love you both, and Disney was a rotten right-winger, but…it’s a little different when you think about a poor author, or a small band, or a geek who writes a new program in his garage. China is the largest violator of other people’s patent rights and copyrights in the world, and they don’t wait 50 years. They don’t wait at all. They just rip off the work and creativity of thousands of other people. My publisher doesn’t even bother to sell rights in China, because he knows whatever they’re interested in, they’ll steal. And when they do it with drugs, they sometimes get it wrong and people die.