WASHINGTON – Senator Josh Heale (R -Mo.) Joined other Republicans in Congress in a fistfight with the Walt Disney Company for protesting the Florida Do Not Speak Gay Act, which prohibits discussion of sexual orientation in class.
This week, Hawley introduced a bill to reduce the term of federal copyright protection. The event will only apply to companies with a market capitalization of more than $ 150 billion operating in the film industry.
Most companies like Disney.
Hugh acknowledged that Disney’s response to Florida law was derived from its law, but stressed that the bill is not just about Disney, as a law that punishes someone could Unconstitutional.
“This applies to any company with more than $ 150 billion in revenue,” Howley, a former professor of constitutional law, told HuffPost. “You can’t target just one company.”
This measure would not become law, but if it did, other companies could legally profit from Disney’s unlicensed material without waiting for the copyright to expire, making its intellectual property public. .
Haley presented her bill as part of her broader campaign against Big Tech and Awakening Corporations; It’s also the latest phase of a Republican cultural war since Disney said it opposed Florida’s ban on sexual orientation in the classroom and discussions on gender identity in the third grade.
“Our goal as a company is to repeal this law by the legislature or repeal it in court, and we continue to be committed to supporting national and state organizations working to achieve it,” a spokesman for Disney. March says Florida law “Don’t say gay”..
Even without a change in federal law, Disney will lose copyright protection. On January 1, 2024, Disney will lose copyright to the first remake of the 1928 short film “Steamboat Willie” and its main character, Mickey Mouse.
The cartoon rodent may have gone public several times over the past few decades, but Congress has repeatedly extended the term of federal copyright law. Thanks to the brutal pressure from Disney.
James Grimelmann, an intellectual property expert at Cornell Law School, described Disney’s copyright fight as a “harmless stance” against what won’t happen tonight.
“There is no political coalition pushing hard for further expansion; “Rockets didn’t hit the copyright industries when works in the 1920s began to enter the public domain,” Grimelman said in an email. “Opposition to the extension of copyright is against prohibition. No one is fighting for his return. The rat doesn’t care. “
Source: Huffpost
