Re: copyright and "The Jungle Book"

On Mon, 8 May 2000, Terry Carroll <carroll[_at_]tjc.com> wrote:
>
> (Was: benefits of the public domain and limited copyright terms?)
>
> On Sat, 6 May 2000, Lance Purple <lpurple[_at_]netcom.com> wrote:
> >
> > Most of Walt Disney's animated films were based on public-domain
> > works published in the 1800's. . . . _Jungle Book_ (released exactly
> > one year after Kipling's copyrights expired),
>
> Is this accurate?
>
> If I've checked my facts correctly, Kipling's "The Jungle Book"
> was published in 1899.[1] The U.S. copyright statute that would
> have controlled at expiration would have been the 1909 copyright
> act, which provided for a 56-year copyright term (28, plus another
> 28 on renewal). This would have Kipling's copyright expire in
> 1955.[2]
>
> According to the Internet Movie Database, Disney's "The Jungle Book"
> was released in 1967, eleven years after the Kipling copyright
> expired.[3]

My bad. I had written down 1957 for the film.

However, the point remains that if perpetual copyright had been enacted in 1900, we'd probably never have heard of Walt Disney. The first six "Laugh-O-Gram" cartoons he produced in 1922 were all based on public-domain stories [1].

    Little Red Riding Hood
    The Four Musicians Of Bremen
    Cinderella
    Goldie Locks and the Three Bears
    Jack and the Beanstalk
    Puss in Boots

He couldn't have made these if he'd had to pay royalties or get permission from copyright holders; he was a nobody, working out of his garage at night, and working a day job to finance it all.

Similarly, _Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs_ was a very high-risk project; the production costs alone nearly bankrupted Disney. [2] They could not have paid royalties, or handled the cost overruns if one of the Grimm's grand-nephews demanded last-minute changes such as "no singing mice"; and the film almost certainly wouldn't have ever been produced.

[1] "Disney Shorts 1922"

    <http://www.geocities.com/~eutychus55/years/1922/1922.htm>

[2] "Walt Disney Timeline"

    <http://www.islandnet.com/~kpolsson/disnehis/>  

Lance Purple
<lpurple[_at_]netcom.com> Received on Tue May 09 2000 - 12:17:50 GMT