Tuesday, July 31, 2007

No Character...


A restraining order has been issued by the Delhi High Court on a Mumbai-based company that prevents it from making or selling products using Disney characters on a plea by Disney Enterprises Inc.

This is a priority of the Walt Disney Company in its Asian plans. One of the key stumbling blocks to building a theme park in India and mainland China is the rampant copyright infringement that goes on there. The Western understanding of intellectual property has yet to fully take hold in various parts of Asia. If Bob Iger and his executives can become confident that it can be contained then we can look forward to a much quicker expansion into those territories.

1 comment:

Jon said...

I think that the western concept of intellectual property is a flawed system. Since Disney has been pushing the length of a copyright to 70 years after the creator's death, I do not have pity points for them. There is so much wonderful non-Disney content that should be in the public domain right now!

The cultural conflict is bigger than cartoons printed on cookware. If eastern countries chose not to abide by our rules, then Disney shouldn't build there. This is an issue within the society, not the illegal goods. If Disney was smart, they wouldn't push for any presence in the heart of a bootlegging country.