Disney: IP Troll

Two days after an elite group of the US military, known as Seal Team Six, killed Osama bin Laden, Disney filed three separate applications to trademark the name:

In a perfect example of a big media company looking to capitalize on current events, The Walt Disney Company has trademarked “Seal Team 6"... Disney’s trademark applications for “Seal Team 6″ cover clothing, footwear, headwear, toys, games and “entertainment and education services,” among other things.

First, before I get to the point, I disagree with the term "capitalize" in the block quote above. This is no more an example of capitalism than our public schools.

As I pointed out in a previous post, IP Trolls are persons or companies who buy up or file for exclusive rights in order to receive a government grant of monopoly privileges to lock out competition and sue the bejeezus out of anyone who tries to compete. Disney is clearly being an IP Troll. They have no reasonable claim to the term "Seal Team Six," nor any projects previously in the works that could justify such a claim. They learned about this team they way everybody else in America did, on the news.

The Navy has taken notice and filed their own applications, though their a little slower on the uptake. Will this be the end of Disney's money grab? Probably not, says William McGeveran, a law professor at the University of Minnesota:

Disney may get approval, but what’s more likely to happen... is that Disney and the Navy will reach some kind of mutually beneficial agreement. Law enforcement agencies, such as the New York City Police Department, make such arrangements, lending out their trademark or cars, in exchange for compensation or script approval.... He could imagine that Disney might want to make a movie or TV show based on SEAL Team 6 and would strike some kind of deal with the Navy.

This is not an unusual practice. Large corporations that own a lot of copyrights have been known to sue each other and then work out an agreement to where they can both have access to each others copyrights, reducing competition even further.

Also, in the celebratory spirit of the aftermath of bin Laden's death, merchandise galore popped up with the term on them. Now, there is a possibility that these people could be sued in the future.

Welcome to America. Land of the free. If you have really good lawyers. (I exaggerate, but only slightly)

 

Get Your Hands Off My Brain!

The producers of The Expendables, represented by the US Copyright Group (USCG), has had a subpoena request approved by a federal judge. This request is being sent to find out the identities of over 23,000 bittorrent users who downloaded this crappy movie. (FYI, I've never seen the movie but if 23,000 people didn't feel your movie was worth waiting and coughing up a buck at the redbox, your movie sucks.)

The most egregious part is each offense is punishable by up to $150,000 fine, per download. That seems way out of whack with any sense of "justice" when a theater ticket costs at most $20. And then, to top that off, the USCG isn't even seeking justice; they want to settle at about $3000/download. Their coyright trolls, not intellectual property defenders.

Cases like this and this, where copyright trolls buy up rights just to sue, should have the US rethinking it's entire process for intellectual property. The whole purpose of property rights is to divide up scarce resources. Then supply and demand market forces price that property based on it's relative scarcity. Ideas are not scarce. The internet revolution has properly priced idea-based creations down to $0.

"But, what about making money off of your ideas?" Well, if your idea is good, it will make money. The problem for the producers in this case is that after downloading the movie and watching it most decided, rightfully so, that it wasn't worth buying. Hence, good ideas are scarce and have a monetary value. Bad ideas get downloaded and trashed. Unfortunately, we're stuck with these laws that go against the grain of reality.

But if we're going to have intellectual property laws, two rules:

1. Punishment fits the crime - $150,000/download is outrageous.
2. Ban copyright trolls - The only person benefiting from lawsuit should be the "victim." Companies that buy up copyrights for the sole purpose of suing, should have no place in our legal system. It is a distortion of justice.

If you do find yourself up against copyright trolls, contact the Electronic Frontier Foundation.