Disney fails at stealing for once. Loses Winnie the Pooh rights.

[JINZONINGEN73]

They stole Kimba the White Lion.

They steal and emulate other people's properties all the time.

But for once, all the payoffs, threats, bullying and (documented!) document-shredding DIDN'T WORK.

http://www.politicalgateway.com/news/read/64459

Disney loses legal battle for Pooh rights

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 19 (UPI) -- U.S. entertainment giant Walt Disney Co. has lost a court battle over the rights to the Winnie the Pooh characters held by Stephen Slesinger Inc.

A U.S. district court judge in Los Angeles ruled Disney had no grounds to challenge a licensing agreement struck with the Slesinger family.

New York literary agent Stephen Slesinger acquired the Pooh merchandising rights from author A.A. Milne in 1930. After Slesinger died, his widow struck a deal with Disney in 1961 to merchandise Pooh and his friends in exchange for royalties.

The Slesingers sued Disney in 1991, claiming the company had cheated them out of hundreds of millions of dollars in profits.

Disney sought to have a 1983 renegotiation of the Slesinger agreement with the Milne family declared invalid.

"Now that Disney's misguided claims have been dismissed, we can focus on pursuing Slesinger's claims against Disney," attorney Barry Slotnick said.

The Slesingers seek $2 billion for damages, trademark and copyright infringement, breach of contract and fraudulently underpaying royalties.

A Disney attorney downplayed the significance of the ruling.

You think 2billion is enough though?

Once Disney realized they might actually lose Pooh, they went crazy apeshit with the marketing of items with him and his friends on it.

They probably make 2 billion off him in 2 months, much less the years they've held him hostage.

[JINZONINGEN73]

And here's an older site, describing just one of their tactics used to try and get away with it:

http://www.monitor.net/monitor/0202a/pooh3.html

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Ernest M. Hiroshige has levied severe evidence sanctions against Disney for destroying 40 boxes of documents, including one marked "Winnie the Pooh, legal problems" that were shredded in 1998. The judge also levied monetary damages of $90,000 against Disney in that case.

The studio could face more sanctions for shredding hundreds of other boxes and thousands of pages of Pooh-related shipping documents of its Hong Kong manufacturing arm. A secret injunction ordering Disney to stop shredding was handed down by Superior Court Judge Ernest Hiroshige in June 2001 and only came to light when the case was unsealed in January.

At the close of a conference call for investors Thursday, Disney Chairman Michael Eisner announced that the firm would no longer use its auditors, PricewaterhouseCoopers, as outside accounting consultants but made no mention of its long relationship with Arthur Andersen & Co.

During the time that an Arthur Andersen partner supervised the lengthy accounting procedures in the discovery process for the case, at least 250 boxes of documents at Disney's Canasa Trading subsidiary were destroyed by Disney shredders, court records show.

But UNFORTUNATELY :

Merrill Lynch media analyst Jessica Reif Cohen told Forbes Magazine in March 2000 that she estimated that the Pooh characters generate $6 billion a year for Disney, about a fourth of its revenue.

So 2 billion doesn't seem like much, does it?

Still...

[Hobbes]

Go Slesingers!

[xwingyoda]

Thats great news 8-

[vahkimetru]

I loathe Disney. :-X

It's great that Pooh gets to be a good old storybook character and not some stupid Disneyfied creature. I also hate Disney's marketing scheme. They own a fleet of cruise ships, not to mention an island. (As a contradiction of all of my rants against Disney, I love the parks... And they have their own LEGO Store... 8-

[Starwars4J]

I am glad Disney lost (they've been acting way too much like Big Brother in the last...well, since their existence), however it will still be a little sad to know that Pooh will no longer be anywhere on Disney, it's like taking Peter Pan out (which they also probably stole... :-| )

This reminds me of a time I was little and waiting in line for Space Mountain with my mom. I had a bad feeling all of a sudden, and said I thought we should go, she thought I was just being scared. Pretty soon we saw police officers walking up the return aisle, and a bunch of people then walking out. That's when we decided to get off line. When we did...you know those slow-moving trams that take you on a tour of space land? Well they go inside Space mountain at one point...and the whole thing was stopped, and there were "Disney Cops" (best I can describe them) standing on the tracks for it at regular intervals. The whole thing was on lockdown! I can just imagine what happened...like this family who had their son lose a leg on Thunder Mountain and were immediately forced to sign a waiver and a document to keep quiet about it (which they obviously broke).

[vahkimetru]

Space Mountain's the golf ball in Epcot, right? It got locked down when I was inside. They said it was normal. I have to admit being scared in the golf ball. Disney has the weirdest of ideas.

And they forced a family to sign a waver, AFTER their kid was handicapped for life? After he was crippled? And Disney Cops? I've been to Disney in Florida many, many times. I have faint memories of security guards, but Disney's gonna get a fudgey PRIVATE ARMY, on the course they're going.

What ever happened to M-I-C-K-E-Y, M-O-U-S-E?

Disney continues to confuse me. :-/

[Zarkan]

....

Then I guess this means I will get even more death threats, due to the fact that I am very sad that Disney lost the rights to Pooh. :-P

Seriously, I like Disney a lot more than Dreamworks, since they manage to withhold all the dumb potty humor and inuendos from their movies. (I REALLY disklike Shrek. :-X ) Since when have we had a Dreamworks movie that didn't manage to stuff a lot of double-entandres and stupid jokes in? :-/

So, unlike everybody in this topic so far, I won't be going BUAHAHA.

BTW, is it safe for me to assume that Eurobricks is generally anti Disney? If so, then I won't be joining in this conversation any further.

It's great that Pooh gets to be a good old storybook character and not some stupid Disneyfied creature.

BLASPHERMY! (j/k) The 80's movie is a clasic! 8-

[vahkimetru]

Greivous have you read the "House at Pooh Corner"? :-P

I guess the original is good. But can you stand "The Tigger Movie" or all the crappy remakes Disney has done? Mulan 2? The Fox and the Hound 2? The Lion Kin 1.5? Peter Pan 2 (I'm sure Barry would hate to see that if he were alive. :-( ).

I do agree with you however, that Dreamworks and Shrek are terrible. Does anyone remember that studio that did at least three children's movies last spring? (Doogal, that stuff...) Those movies were terrible.

Every so often Disney will throw us a good movie (IMO, the Incredables was wonderful) but then they ruin it with some crud sequal. The movies teach very little to children and just melts at their brain like all TV.

To quote Frederic Beigbeder's Windows on the World:

"Our kids are badly brought up because they're not brought up at all. At least, not by us; they're brought up by cartoon channels. Thank you, Disney Channel, the world's babysitter! Our kids are spoiled rotten because we're spoiled rotten."

That sums up why I don't watch cartoons (Save for the Simpsons once a week. I don't watch much TV)

Disney is just teaching children (Which I am one) that they neeeeed to beg their parents into letting them see some mindless cartoon movie, or buy some merchandise. This is why I hate Disney.

Enough ranting for me. :-$

[Starwars4J]

Space Mountain's the golf ball in Epcot, right?

Nah, that's Spaceship Earth. Space Mountain is a ride in the Magic Kingdom

[vahkimetru]

Oh. I haven't been to Magic Kingdom since I was 4. But I went there a lot when I was younger.... good times...

[Scouty]

Thats great news 8-

[vahkimetru]

I thought "Nemo'' was Pixar...unless it was sponsored by Disney, nevermind.

Disney owns Pixar. George Lucas created Pixar and the Pixar Computer, sold it to Disney and that's how it all started.

Pixar would me much better off as a private company, without Disney giving them ideas.

[dillthepill]

Go Slesingers!

:-D Those smilies are hilarious.

I loathe Disney. :-X

It's great that Pooh gets to be a good old storybook character and not some stupid Disneyfied creature. I also hate Disney's marketing scheme. They own a fleet of cruise ships, not to mention an island. (As a contradiction of all of my rants against Disney, I love the parks... And they have their own LEGO Store... 8-

[vahkimetru]

Hey, you've gotta admit they have one nice LEGO Store! :-D

[Zarkan]

The movies teach very little to children and just melts at their brain like all TV.

I disagree. Many of the recent movies they have made, and basicly all of the Pixar movies contain at least one main moral message displayed throughout the movie (and often several). Cars was about treating others as you wanted to be treated, National Treasure's big end message was that family is the ultimate treasure, and etc. I seem to see a lot more moral goodness in their most recent movies than you. :-/

Disney is just teaching children (Which I am one) that they neeeeed to beg their parents into letting them see some mindless cartoon movie, or buy some merchandise. This is why I hate Disney.

Um, you do realize that basically every toy or movie company does that (even TLC), don't you? ;-)

Does anyone remember that studio that did at least three children's movies last spring? (Doogal, that stuff...) Those movies were terrible.

Doogal and Arthur and the Invisibles were bad, but I really liked Hoodwinked, because it had a similar formula as Shrek, only without the potty humor and immuendos (which was what really spoiled Shrek for me). :-)

But can you stand "The Tigger Movie" or all the crappy remakes Disney has done? Mulan 2? The Fox and the Hound 2? The Lion Kin 1.5? Peter Pan 2 (I'm sure Barry would hate to see that if he were alive. ).

I truly don't think Mulan 2, Lion King 1.5, or Peter Pan were that bad at all (yes, I have seen all of them). And besides, can any remake of a clasic really stand up to the original? For what it's worth, I think they are doing a decent job in that area. ;-)

do agree with you however, that Dreamworks and Shrek are terrible

Yeah. The only movie I though they did good with was Over the Hedge, especially since they toned down the potty humor a bit and gave it a good message. Madagascar would have been good... if it had a real point. :-| And now I hear they are turning it into a trilogy! Double :-|

Whoops, I've talked my mouth off after saying I wouldn't join in the discusion any more! Oh well... X-D

[vahkimetru]

I realize that that's marketing, but there's Disney everything. Disney island, disney park, disney cruise, disney police, disney video game, disney costume, disney, disney, disney!

We have Lego park, Lego hotel, Lego video game, Lego movie (Bionicle), Lego clothes, and Lego store. Based around a toy.

[JINZONINGEN73]

Lol, I never heard about the Disney Cops / waiver / child maiming incident.

Sounds like scientologist / Clearwater, Florida territory there. And that territory is DAMN spooky.

... ...

...am I the only one who thought Shrek was great? I avoided it like the plague at first due to over-saturation in advertising.

It was airing ads on the radio.

It was incessantly airing ads on the TV.

It had promos on many food products while walking through the supermarket.

Then, I go to work at night, a place I should be safe, and his head is plastered on every computer monitor image in the electronics ad out of the newspaper in the break room.

It was a good few months later my wife dl'ed it and I kicked myself for not seeing it sooner.

Yeah, there was crude humor, but geez... aren't people crude to begin with? I just farted 20 minutes ago, no joke. I'm chugging Mountain Dew, partially dribbling it. A little later, it's going to make me burp REAL loud.

That's what the Shrek characters were. Normal. Not ...well ...whatever the heck all the actors and cartoon characters in all the other 800 million movies out there are trying to be. It was nice seeing a CGI cartoon that WASN'T a kiddy movie for once.

Yeah. The only movie I though they did good with was Over the Hedge, especially since they toned down the potty humor a bit and gave it a good message.

Ok, I let you slide on not liking Shrek, but liking Over the Hedge... aaaagh!

Lol. I saw it.. It didn't resemble the (good) Sunday comic at all. None of the witty humor was present.

Really, it was just more of the same ol' same ol' cliche' stuff.

It was like watching "Chicken Run", except instead of a cocky, smartassed rooster, it was a cocky, smartassed racoon.

I'm just going to throw this out for the hell of it... What did you think of the CGI Garfield movie, if you saw it?