"P2991", "The Reagans" and something to chew on

[drbtg1]

A media controversy back in 2003 was the attempts by the Bush administration to increase the limits of television station ownership by a single entity. On July 23, 2003, the House voted 400-21 to approve a spending bill that included a provision to block the FCC decision to allow major television networks to own up to 45% of the country's viewers. This was remarkably bipartisan in the opposition to increase ownership limits.

However, a short time later, BushCo pushed again to get the limits . In a last minute deal, Senate Republican leaders and the White House compromised on the TV station ownership cap, from 35% to 39%. This 4 percent difference would have affected only two companies. The first was Fox News's parent company News Corp., already in Bush's back pocket. The other was Viacom, owners of CBS. It was increased just enough to allow Viacom and News Corporation to keep all their stations.

http://www.pbs.org/now/politics/mediatimeline.html

The date of this compromise was November 24, 2003. This was only one week after "The Reagans" was supposed to air on CBS, but it was two months before CBS refused to accept ads from Moveon.org for the Superbowl (although they did air a puff-piece interview with Bush during the pre-game).

Cause and effect? Maybe, maybe not.

The hypocrisy of refusing to distribute F911 while airing OxyRush on radio stations it owns may have been a long-term strategy. But the "need" to get P2911 on the air now does make me wonder what Disney is trying to done in the short-term.

[Benhurst]

1. I read somewhere that their copyrights are expiring. They already

pushed through an extraordinary extension for Mickey Mouse and now want more concessions.

Hemingway heirs and those of other creative persons have to live with the laws as they were passed. Disney is above the law.

[drbtg1]

2. Thanks. Big can of worms there

You may be on to something, but I think a lot of others would be working with Disney on that one. AOL Time Warner, for example, owns DC Comics, which makes a lot of money from the licensing of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, characters created back when the copyright law allowed for (please correct me if I'm wrong) a 28 year term and a 28 year renewal. Since then, the law was changed for a term of creator's life plus 70 years. Corporate authors get 95 years after publication. However, unless the item was made under "work made for hire" rules, an original creator (or widow or certain heirs) can revoke the assignment of a copyright and get it back from a corporation. This is what the estate of Jerry Siegel is trying to do with 50% of the copyright of Superman and 100% of the copyright for Superboy.

And this is just one example. Not just a Mickey Mouse operation.