Since my July 24 post on copyrights http://wp.me/pYql4-2fA generated significant interest, I want to direct you to another blog post discussing the probable copyright violations of Danny Boyle in his fanciful opening ceremony at the Olympics.
In her article “Reclaiming Mary Poppins and the Characters We Love,” Maggie O’Toole discusses way in which corporate interests have successfully lengthened and strengthened the rules in their own interest. Maggie says:
“In this bit of public theater, director Danny Boyle reclaimed the British people’s ownership of their children’s literature, the rights to which have long since been sold off to various corporate interests…In doing so, he challenged the idea that these characters, or any characters, can belong to someone.”
Despite my recent musings on copyright, the idea never occurred to me. Please read the full article. If you love these characters, you will enjoy it!
http://maggienotmargaret.com/2012/07/28/reclaiming-mary-poppins-and-the-characters-we-love/
The First Gates 
Thanks for sharing my post! I thought I might have been dived a little too deep into my defense of fandom when I wrote it, but I guess not. I wrote my thesis on a very similar topic, and it was great to see something in on the international stage that might get people thinking about these ideas.
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It’s a relevant topic about which I know very little, so thanks for the post!
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Maggie’s post was most interesting. Disney has, in my mind, made a mess of things. Thanks for cross-posting. I may be the only person on the planet who has not watched one minute of Olympics, but I’m wishing I’d seen the opening ceremony.
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In practical terms, as a blogger, I’m far less worried about corporations than I am about individuals. To my mind, the case against Roni Loren is the moral equivalent of “Whiplash, whiplash.”
On a couple of past occasions, I grabbed illustrations of movie reviews for new releases, and found the next day that they didn’t rez. Some of the one’s the producers don’t want you to use have built in protection. At other times there are free downloads and wallpaper for fans.
Like in many other areas, the digital era has ushered in questions and issues that didn’t exist a short tim ago.
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