Disney CEO apologizes after elementary school is fined for Lion King showing
But that doesn’t answer how the company learned about the event

Disney CEO Bob Iger is personally apologizing to a parent-teacher association group after a California elementary school was fined for buying a physical version of The Lion King and playing it during a fundraising event.


“Our company [Disney] apologizes to the Emerson Elementary School PTA and I will personally donate to their fund raising initiative,” Iger tweeted this morning.

The case is a bizarre one. Emerson Elementary School in Berkeley, California, was fined $250 by licensing firm Movie Licensing USA for playing the movie during a “parent’s night out” fundraiser that raised $800, according to CNN. The fundraiser was set up to help out teachers and bring more money into the school, according to a tweet from the Emerson PTA.

“ONE OF THE DADS BOUGHT THE MOVIE AT BEST BUY”
Movie Licensing USA, a licensing firm that works with Disney and a number of other companies, sent an email to Emerson Elementary, letting it know the firm was alerted to the PTA’s screening, and the school was facing a $250 fine as a result for showing a movie for which it didn’t have the licensing rights. The email, which was obtained by CNN, noted that “any time a movie is shown outside of the home, legal permission is needed to show it, as it is considered a Public Performance.”

Members of the PTA didn’t know they had to license it. “One of the dads bought the movie at Best Buy,” PTA president David Rose told CNN. “He owned it. We literally had no idea we were breaking any rules.”

There are a number of unanswered questions. How did Movie Licensing USA even find out about the event? Who alerted the company to a small fundraising event, which led the firm to take action? Disney is notorious for its copyright takedown strategy, but it’s usually over parts of its movies ending up on YouTube or other hosting sites or merchandise using characters from its properties — not a fundraising event where a movie purchased by a local father was shown.

At least Iger is trying to rectify the situation. But it doesn’t answer any of the questions listed above. The Verge has reached out to Disney and Movie Licensing USA for more information.

Mayo Pete snitched.

The gay bashing on this site in regards to Pete has to stop

Edit: nobody gives a shit vegan

Denied. Fair Use and Copyright should be something they’re familiar with, although MANY teachers just ignore that and play videos anyway. I mean, sure, of all companies, of course it’d be Disney with their permanent fucking over of US copyright law to keep Mickey Mouse out of the public domain. Public performance licenses aren’t that expensive.

They should add a message to movies about displaying it in public without permission.

What I don't get is that someone bought it from best buy then played it. Wasn't pirated etc. What's the difference? Is it the money they presumably charged (as a fundraiser) to watch it the differentiating factor here?

For the same reason a movie theater can't go to best buy and buy a dvd and then sell tickets to watch it. It's a different license for public broadcast.

Gotcha. Still interested to know how they found out about the fundraiser and if there's a threshold they have in mind when deciding to fine people. Would they let a backyard fundraiser slide but go after a much larger crowd? Obviously in this case they went after the smallest infraction possible. Just weird.

Do schools also generally get fines for doing school plays and musicals? Not everything is in the public domain.

The gay bashing on this site in regards to Pete has to stop

Edit: nobody gives a shit vegan

Do schools also generally get fines for doing school plays and musicals? Not everything is in the public domain.

They should have received implied oral consent

Mickey Mouse should have been put into the public domain years/decades ago, but somehow Disney keeps it protected.

They should add a message to movies about displaying it in public without permission.

There's a saying that the average person commits several felonies every day.