Originally published at: Lawmaker Lauren Boebert thinks she has the power to extend "Micky" Mouse's trademark | Boing Boing
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She’s obviously confusing trademarks and copyrights. And is unaware that Mickey Mouse is now in the public domain.
edited to add: Oops, i confused Mickey Mouse with Winnie-the Pooh, which is no longer protected by copyright in the US. (but still trademarked)
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Starting a war with Disney is not going to end well for the GOP.
I saw someone recently point out that Governor DeSantis won his last election by a margin of about 23,000 votes, while the number of Floridians employed by Disney is somewhere around four times that.
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Oh please, please let the GOP declare war on Disney.
Apologies for not knowing how to properly attach a .gif in case this doesn’t work:
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I suppose all the different subsets of the American public need representation in government, but I still think it would be better for all of us if morons didn’t serve in public office.
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Soon, but not quite yet. Many people were surprised that Disney hasn’t done any new lobbying efforts to change the laws again though.
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Oops, I think that I must have conflated that with Winnie-the-Pooh.
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And is unaware that Mickey Mouse is now in the public domain.
That’s not correct. As much as it pains me to say it, Boebert’s underlying sentiment is more or less correct (although she is confusing trademarks and copyrights). As discussed in Lawrence Lessig’s book Free Culture, Disney routinely lobbies Congress to extend copyright protection around the time Mickey Mouse is about to enter the public domain. The most recent such extension, the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998, had the effect of keeping Mickey Mouse under copyright until January 1, 2024.
So, yes, Congress—which hopefully will not include Boebert for long—has the power to extend Mickey Mouse’s copyright but is, as Ted Lieu notes, powerless when it comes to the Mickey Mouse trademark (unless it wants to completely overhaul trademark law).
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Does that come with matches?
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I love reading the comments under her tweets or Marjorie’s tweets or any of them. They always run like 100 to 1 against and yet they keep posting stupid stuff. The best are pointing out her “I think not” comment was the most honest thing she’s posted.
And there’s actually a song that teaches her how to spell Mickey.
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Disney is way ahead of the game on this one, though. I couldn’t speak to their copyright strategy. But they’re also pursuing an alternative strategy: the last number of Disney productions, in addition to the Magic Kingdom castle logo, have had a Steamboat Willy-style Mickey and Minnie bumper as part of their branding. They are going way out of their way to explicitly make Mickey-the-character part of their trade dress in a way they have not quite undertaken before.
Of course, trademark is not anything like the same legal cover as copyright when it comes to the use of a character’s likeness, but when you’ve got a big enough wallet and sufficiently creative lawyers you can intimidate anyone.
[IANAL, FWIW]
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Disney has IP lawyers who are most charitably described as “sharks with rocket launchers on their heads”. You don’t go toe to toe with The Mouse and expect to come out in one piece.
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The purpose of Boebert & Greene is to generate noise in the discourse so that their ideas cloud the conversation and progress and work isn’t made. Not to make arguments for people to take seriously.
Bullshit is asymmetric, it takes more energy to refute than it does to generate. This makes it a valuable tool for moving the Overton Window.
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I just want to know if it would be grammatically correct to start writing “…serving pork-taint sliders…”? It just, rolls. 
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I don’t think she cares that she either lying or just clueless. The only thing that matters is that she’s communicating to her base that she doesn’t like Disney’s stance.
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Bear spray does the same thing. It’s all a matter of aim.
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I think it’s funny that she thinks liberals are the ones that want to extend copyrights.
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And also perhaps to make less/non-vocal GOP members appear downright passable.
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