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Disney Sues Clown Company |
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Thursday, July 10, 2008 |
The title may sound funny, but the story is far from it. A lawsuit of $1,000,000 filed by Disney against a Lake County, Florida family owned business was reported by WFTV. The reason? The family was using copyrighted Disney characters as part of their party entertainment business.
The family bought the Winnie the Pooh costumes on eBay for $700 and then advertised them on their website, MySpace page and Craig's List. Disney lawyers sent them 3 letters demanding them to remove the pictures and to turn the costumes over the Disney so they could be properly destroyed.
The defendent states she took all the photos off the websites. She mailed the costumes back to the original eBay seller for a full refund. She then wrote a letter back to Disney saying they never had unauthorized or copyrighted costumes in their possession. Disney's lawyer accuses the family of acting in bad faith. It has been stated that even if Disney settles, the family may have to pay for Disney's legal fees which could cost close to $10,000.
It's tough to see a family owned business get sued for $1,000,000, but didn't they know they were doing something illegal? Using copyrighted material for a profitable business is not acceptable. This, however, brings me to Disney fan club websites. All of these websites, including D-CoT, use images of Disney characters but the fact of the matter is that the owners don't make money off the websites (at least I don't). I'm sure Disney has come across these websites but see them as "free advertising".
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