Journal: News & Comment

Now that's branding

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Activists in the U.S. are launching a constitutional challenge against the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (yes, it's that Sonny Bono who died not too long ago, from when he was an elected official instead of a singer or TV host). They have chose a wonderful name for their crusade: Free the Mouse.

It gets that name because one thing the Sonny Bono Act did by extending copyrights by 20 years was to prevent Mickey Mouse from becoming a public domain character, whom anyone could use and adapt -- thus permitting the Walt Disney company to make several more kajillion dollars from it without anyone else being able to do the same.

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