Entry #2: Copyright and Design Plagiarism
Video Caption: I created this video as part of our campaign on Design Plagiarism Awareness for our Visual Communication class project. The whole campaign, Creative Credits, is created by Kristelle Ramos, Leslie Uy, Danielle Llantino, Dominique Yu, Nicole Divina and Kim Co (me). For more information on the video and our project, scroll down to Part 2.
In class, Mickey Mouse’s supposedly entry into the Public Domain was cut short when Disney lobbied to the congress for the extension of their copyright on the character was briefly mentioned. Being a fan of Disney and his genius, I was immediately intrigued by the issue - how has Disney been avoiding Mickey Mouse’s entry into the Public Domain and until when will the law adjust to protect Mickey Mouse?
I did some research on the issue and found out from Priceonomics’ article by Zachary Crockett, “How Mickey Mouse Evades the Public Domain”, that Disney, has influenced the prevention of Mickey Mouse’s entry into the Public Domain by lobbying 2 times - in 1976, and in 1998. (Note: It wasn’t just Disney, however, that lobbied for copyright extension but other companies with copyrights on characters and whatnot nearing expiration as well).
Mickey Mouse, according to the 1998 Copyright Term Extension Act, is set to enter the Public Domain in 2023, unless another extension is granted by the law.
Mickey Mouse was brought into the world in 1928, under the 1909 Copyright Act, entitling him to 56 years of protection under the law… [According to this law,] his copyright was set to expire in 1984.
In 1976 — 8 years prior to Mickey’s expiration — Congress completely overhauled U.S. copyright law to conform with European standards which expanded already-published corporate copyrights from 56 years to a maximum of 75 years… all works published after 1922 (including Mickey Mouse) were entitled to the full 75 years of protection. [Mickey Mouse’s copyright expiration changed from 1984 to 2003 - extending his protection for an additional 19 years.]
In 1997, Congress introduced the Copyright Term Extension Act, which proposed to extend corporate copyrights again -- this time, from 75 to 95 years. On October 27, 1998, Mickey Mouse’s copyright was extended another 20 years, to 2023.
(Crockett, “How Mickey Mouse Evades the Public Domain”)
There have been protests to Mickey Mouse’s continued evasion of the Public Domain, but Mickey Mouse was under the protection of the law and could easily sue the protestors (who depicted Mickey Mouse’s character “badly behaving”) for copyright infringement.
According to this article, however, it turns out that Disney doesn’t really have to worry about Mickey Mouse’s entry into the public domain because of “19 trademarks on the words ‘Mickey Mouse’ […and the case of] ‘secondary meaning’ that could shield him from public use” (Crockett).
“According to a precedent set in a 1979 court case, a trademark can protect a character in the public domain as long as that character has obtained what is called “secondary meaning.” This means that the character and the company are virtually inseparable: upon seeing it, one will immediately identify it with a brand. Copyright lawyer Stephen Carlisle contends that Mickey Mouse would meet this qualification with flying colors, should he need to: “Disney has made Mickey Mouse so prominent in all of their corporate dealings, that he is effectively the pre-eminent symbol of the Walt Disney Company. There can be little doubt that anyone seeing the image of Mickey Mouse (or even his silhouette), immediately thinks of Disney.”
(Crockett, “How Mickey Mouse Evades the Public Domain”)
So as long as Disney renews Mickey Mouse’s trademarks, should he enter the public domain, he can still be protected.
Part 2: Design Plagiarism
Mickey Mouse started and made Disney. It is then expected for the company to try its best to keep the famous mouse from entering the public domain. After all, Mickey Mouse is reported to be of billions worth to the company — “having been the only animated character to win an oscar and the first one to get a star at Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.”
Protection of one’s own creation is not only the issue of big companies such as Disney. In fact, plagiarism and infringement, are issues faced by a lot of artists - especially those that have their works displayed on their websites and especially those who are still on their way to making a name for themselves.
Academic Plagiarism is a serious issue especially in universities. A student who commits Academic Plagiarism will be subject to corresponding consequences agreed upon by the higher-ups of the institution (since it is treated as a case-to-case basis). In Ateneo, at the beginning of one’s English course, a handbook entitled The Student Guide to Academic Integrity which includes a sheet of paper that one has to sign, indicating that the student did read and did understand fully what was written inside the small handbook. So in the event that the student does commit plagiarism, the school has something to hold against the student.
Just by the existence of the handbook, the importance given to Academic Plagiarism by Ateneo is evident. And that is great. However, when it comes to Design Plagiarism, it seems that Ateneo is a bit behind. Fortunately, with Sangguinian’s efforts, and the immediacy of the need for such regulations and rules, the Sanggunian has passed the Intellectual Property Rights Task Force (IPRTF) Bill, that will surely help subside or eradicate the issues of Design Plagiarism. The Task Force “will be in-charge of upholding and protecting the creative rights of the students in the university” (Sanggunian).
Last Semester for our Visual Communication class, under sir Ponci Soliongco, we, the Creative Credits (Kristelle Ramos, Dominique Yu, Nicole Divina, Danielle Llantino, Leslie Uy, and Kim Co (me!)), created a campaign (to be presented only in class) on Design Plagiarism Awareness and Creativity. We decided on the campaign as we saw that it was a recurring issue in the Loyola Schools Community. We decided to focus our campaign on Design Plagiarism as it is an issue of the Loyola Schools Community - unlike Academic Plagiarism with consequences for people who commit the crime, people who have been “caught” committing design plagiarism has been getting away with it. We decided that it was the issue we wanted our campaign to focus on and try to solve. We decided on calling our campaign Creative Credits (and having our logo resemble the copyright symbol) as a peak or introduction to the whole of our campaign. Creative Credits simply means giving proper credit to the creatives who work hard and create their own, original material.
For this campaign and project, I was tasked to create a short yet informative video (as seen above) on Design Plagiarism’s basics including some tips to help freshmen (our target audience) and other interested people avoid committing Design Plagiarism. This video is a mock-up for our Design Plagiarism campaign. Along with this, our team, Creative Credits, made mock-ups of stickers, a comic strip, a GIF, a flowchart, a poster and an infographic on Design Plagiarism to combat the issue that exists in our school and promote one’s own creativity.
Through focus groups and interviews, we were able to assess that our campaign was indeed effective in bringing awareness of Design Plagiarism and promoting one’s own creativity. Overall, our project was a great experience. Now that Sanggunian is building its IPRTF, I strongly believe that cases of Design Plagiarism in the Ateneo will lessen if not completely eradicated. This Task Force is a great addition to the Ateneo, as it does reveals how the university community gives great importance to one’s own original work - whether artistic or academic - and all the hard work that comes with it.
Leslie Uy: http://lesliepaulynuy.tumblr.com
Danielle Llantino: http://figente.tumblr.com/post/139165085467/there-never-is-a-time-where-news-about-plagiarism
Dominique Yu: http://sci10ography.tumblr.com/post/139163922476/these-are-some-stickers-i-made-for-a-group-project
Nicole Divina: http://sci10underscore.blogspot.com/2016/02/design-plagiarism.html
Crockett, Zachary. “How Mickey Mouse Evades the Public Domain.” Priceonomics. Disqus 7, Jan. 2016. Web. 12, Feb. 2016. http://priceonomics.com/how-mickey-mouse-evades-the-public-domain/
Sanggunian ng mga Paaralang Loyola ng Ateneo de Manila. “The Ateneo Intellectual Property Rights Task Force Call for Applications.” Facebook. Facebook, 11 Feb. 2016. Web. 12, Feb. 2016.
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