News Round Up 2020

Agreed. The school district/PTO/whoever made the decision is in the wrong. But perhaps sending a bill, the legally allowed solution, wasn't the best solution. That's all. If it truly was a first offense from that district, a letter detailing the law and offering a solution going forward if they want to show a licensed movie again might have been a better move than a bill going backward.

Simply from the PR perspective of big company/public school, the big company is going to come out with egg on their face. Which is exactly what happened. And then Iger paid the bill, which was a good call, but the "after" is rarely as useful in PR purposes as the "original". Overall, this cost more to Disney than the $250 was worth.

I expect Disney, and Movie Licensing USA, will amend their procedures going forward. Just because you are in the right doesn't mean you made the correct choice. That being said, because you made a fuss and got away with being in the wrong, doesn't mean you should be rewarded going forward either.

It kind of is what they got, an explanation and a warning. Just asking them to pay retroactively is the nice way to do it (they also told them of the annual license option). The bad way to go about it would be to sue them right off the bat for copyright infringement rather than giving them a chance to make it right. Not sure why someone should get a pass for violating the law just because they spin it to make the other side look bad.
 
We expected this right? I think?

Wonder if they'll add some type of show in the land itself now.
I mean . that always felt like a temporary "Star Wars Hype" show anyway -- fun to watch once, but surprised it became as permanent as it did.

It seems apparent they have several "stages" within SWGE (by the first order ship and above the landspeeder shop?). I am surprised it took this long and the land didn't open with some sort of show. As someone who enjoys Ren Faires (which SWGE is essentially a sci-fi ren faire) I felt (like a Ren Faire) it needed some sort of show or "plot" happening in those spaces to make it feel even more immersive.

Will be sad to see some of the prequel and OT characters go away, (maybe they can rotate them in Launch Bay) but hope some sort of Star Wars show takes its place.
 
Was going to post this on the Rise of Skywalker discussion thread but I see where it has been closed.

 
but that is my point - I DO fully expect snippets ... what surprised me was just how much of the ride they have been showing - how many different elements, different scenes, etc. ... they could have promoted it any only shown 1/3rd or less of the number of different things they have
I have been on the ride and I agree with this.
 
No. You are correct. My answer was simply sometimes you send a notification and a warning first. Then a fine if they keep doing it. That way you have some coverage for PR. Of course maybe this school district is a serial offender and they just don't feel like arguing with them. Who knows. But you are playing a bad PR game as was shown in the end.

The sticky thing about intellectual property is that if you don't defend it in every circumstance, you lose the legal right to defend it later. So if it could be proven that DIsney knew about someone using their intellectual property without licensure and failed to say legally to that entity, "That is our intellectual property and you must pay a licensing fee," then later on when someone bigger, like an entire line of movie theaters, for example, decides to show the movie without paying for it, Disney would lose the right to defend The Lion King against that larger infringement.

That's a simplified explanation but it's why big companies send mean-sounding letters to little guys that aren't actually hurting them. Disney didn't need to collect the $250 and probably wouldn't have made any further effort to collect... but in sending that letter, they covered themselves legally so that they can actually pursue any bigger threat later down the line.

If the public had access to all the communications, we'd probably see language in the later communications that says they are "crediting them back the fee," or even, "donating the fee," carefully worded so that Disney maintains their right to charge fees in general for that film.
 
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