g r o t t o 1 1

Peeve Farm
Breeding peeves for show, not just to keep as pets
Brian Tiemann
Silicon Valley-based purveyor of a confusing mixture of Apple punditry and political bile.

btman at grotto11 dot com

Read These Too:

InstaPundit
USS Clueless
James Lileks
Little Green Footballs
As the Apple Turns
Entropicana
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Capitalist Lion
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Wednesday, July 7, 2004
13:41 - The lawyers sleep tonight
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=entertainmentNews&storyID=5575753

(top) link
Here's another item of possibly nil, possibly great interest. Who am I to say? But it's a story that I've been in something of a position to watch develop from the beginning.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African lawyers are suing U.S. entertainment giant Walt Disney Co for infringement of copyright on "The Lion Sleeps Tonight," the most popular song to emerge from Africa, the lawyers said on Friday.

If Disney loses, South African proceeds from its trademarks -- including Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck -- could be seized by the courts, lawyers representing relatives of the song's composer said.

The lilting song, initially called "Mbube," earned an estimated $15 million in royalties since it was written by Zulu migrant worker Solomon Linda in 1939, and featured in Walt Disney's "Lion King" movies.

However, Linda's impoverished family have only received about $15,000, the lawyers said.

That would be the song also known variously as "Wimoweh", "Weemaway", and other spellings.

I was contacted (in my position at the helm of the Internet's Lion King fan community) by a journalist from South Africa a couple of years ago, who claimed to be putting together a report on Solomon Linda, the history of the song, and its long sordid history of greatness and stardom while its writer and his family languished in poverty. I wasn't able to provide much information or insight, but it was clear that something was going on, as he asked me specifically whether I thought Disney could be held liable for the kind of damages the lawyers are asking for. I told him I had no idea. It looks like they've gone forward indeed.

Who knows where this will lead? Again, I have no idea. My gut tells me "big settlement time"; after all, though Disney Feature Animation is surely not flush with cash (being disbanded and all), Disney the corporation is still a hard target to miss with a pillowcase full of dung. I don't necessarily think Disney ought to be the one held culpable for this whole mess (they're hardly the first ones to profit from the use of the song, and its use in The Lion King was simply as an offhand nod to a pop-culture meme as old as the hills, and they did pay the Tokens' label for its use); they're just obviously the most easy-to-sue of all potential defendants, so they're kind of stuck. But all the same, it would be nice to see some recognition, at the very least, roll back to the song's original author and his legacy.

I'll bet the author of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" would have done the same if he could.


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