Kindle ebooks DVDs - how are these legal??

RoyaleMale

mwddrwg wrote: »

It's definitely ebay but why are these listings not removed?

Because ebay make money from them and quite often, as experienced by myself, even if you do report them nothing gets done.

andrewsi

Crowqueen wrote: »

After all, the corporation is a legal entity - it can own the rights and thus they could never expire so long as the Disney Corporation exists.

There are a couple of different kinds of copyrights, which naturally get different treatment.

If I write a novel, then I can assign whatever copyrights I want to whatever organisations or individuals I want (but ownership of the novel stays with me). 50-70 years after my death, it enters into the public domain, and it doesn't matter whether any organisation still has rights to publish it; their rights expire 50-70 years after I do.

If I'm hired by an organisation to produce something (new design for a webpage), then ownership belongs to the organisation that paid me; in that case, it enters into the public domain 95 years after it's first published.

Crowqueen

andrewsi wrote: »

There are a couple of different kinds of copyrights, which naturally get different treatment.

If I write a novel, then I can assign whatever copyrights I want to whatever organisations or individuals I want (but ownership of the novel stays with me). 50-70 years after my death, it enters into the public domain, and it doesn't matter whether any organisation still has rights to publish it; their rights expire 50-70 years after I do.

If I'm hired by an organisation to produce something (new design for a webpage), then ownership belongs to the organisation that paid me; in that case, it enters into the public domain 95 years after it's first published.

Thank you for explaining that. That makes sense.

I wonder what happens in the case of Peter Pan, where an organisation owns the rights to something they didn't actually publish or create, and what happens when rights are bought and sold. I wonder how far that law would apply or how they can extend those rights (which is what the Mickey Mouse Protection Act is trying to do for Disney).

Apparently Michael Jackson owned the rights to the Beatles back catalogue and even the original creators have to obtain permission from him - or, presumably now his estate - to use their own songs or lyrics.

antrobus

Crowqueen wrote: »

You're not wrong; you're simply re-stating what I wrote and quoting from the articles.

No, I think it's important to appreciate that the statement "Disney got the US government to reserve rights to Mickey Mouse essentially in perpetuity; they are trademarked, which means as long as Disney keeps using them, they never go out of copyright" is incorrect. SPecifically;

- Disney has not been granted any special rights
- All trademarks exist in perpetuity
- As things stand Mickey Mouse cartoons will go out of copyright

Crowqueen wrote: »

The so-called "Mickey Mouse Protection Act" provides for both copyright and trademarks to be maintained on both Mickey and the cartoons featuring him.

No, the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act 1998 aka the Mickey Mouse Protection Act relates to copyright, it has nothing to say on the issue of trademarks whatsoever.

Crowqueen wrote: »

I think it may be safe to say that Disney will aggressively defend the copyright on many of their cartoons so perhaps the point is moot in that case. After all, the corporation is a legal entity - it can own the rights and thus they could never expire so long as the Disney Corporation exists.

Crowqueen wrote: »

This is the case with the Great Ormond Street ownership of the rights to Peter Pan and the works that feature him - the hospital owns the rights therefore the only case where they would go out of copyright would be when the hospital ceases to exist as a legal entity.

Great Ormond Street does not possess the copyright to Peter Pan, rather it has been granted by statute a perpetual right to receive royalties. So that, for example, anybody could publish Peter Pan as long as they pay the specified royalty payment. You can't publish a copyrighted work without being specifically granted the right to do so.

Crowqueen wrote: »

Those links I posted however refer to the rights for usage of characters like Winnie The Pooh and Peter Pan - neither they nor their original works are out of copyright at all and should not be assumed to be simply because their creators are long dead.

In the case of Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne died in 1956 so his work will enter the public domain in the UK in 2026. All works written by authors who died in 1940 or before are now in the public domain.

The question the OP asked related to the copyright of books; character rights are something quite different.