In another twist to Florida’s ” Parental Rights in Education” HB 1557 bill, House Republican Study Committee Chairman Jim Banks has apparently written a letter to Disney CEO Bob Chapek. The letter apparently states that he will fight to rescind the Mickey Mouse copyright renewal if Disney does not stop it’s campaign against the bill.

Here is a copy of the letter from Breitbart:

“At home, Disney has capitulated to far-left activists through hypocritical, woke corporate actions. The most recent example is Disney’s public opposition to Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Act, which recently passed Florida’s legislature and was signed into law by Governor Ron DeSantis. The law prohibits classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten through the 3rd grade, topics which are inappropriate for children that age.

Disney has said it wants this law repealed even though it has broad support among Florida residents, especially parents. A senior Disney employee was recently caught on camera saying she wants “many, many, many, LGBTQIA characters in our stories.” And according to a Disney employee, Disney’s Diversity Equity and Inclusion Department, “expanded by an astonishing 633 percent in 2019-21, at the same time that nearly every other department was contracting by 25-75 percent.” This suggests Disney is purposefully influencing small children with political and sexual agenda.”

Mickey Mouse is up for a copyright extension on January 1, 2024.

Disney is known for it’s seemingly never-ending copyright on it’s characters. Mickey Mouse was supposed to go into public domain years ago, but due to Congress passing the “Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act,” adding 20 years to older works, the original version of the mouse will go into Public Domain in 2024. Now that is only for the Steamboat Willie version, each subsequent version got 20 years added to their release dates.

This opens up that version of the character for public usage unless an extension is somehow created. We all know Disney is going to fight tooth and nail to make sure they somehow get the laws changed so they can keep the IP.

That all being said, I don’t know how this is going to play out for Mr. Banks. Unless other legislators join his cause it could come across to some as “bullying” “poor Disney” when it’s unrelated to the bill.

Banks also stated:

“Given Disney’s continued work with a Communist Chinese regime that does not respect human rights or U.S. intellectual property and given your desire to influence young children with sexual material inappropriate for their age, I will not support further extensions applicable to your copyrights, which should become public domain.”

Disney has been pandering to China for awhile as evidenced by decisions made on films  like the live-action “Mulan” and promotional materials with black actors being altered for China. So there does seem to be a double standard.

I’m not sure how this is going to go. Disney has been benefiting from copyright extensions and I think that is an issue that needs to be examined for sure. I just don’t know if leveraging it against the Florida issue is the right way to handle it. As an outsider it comes across like they only care about the arguable manipulation of copyright law by Disney only when they can leverage it for something else.

Disney really needs to return to an apolitical company. Otherwise it’s going to find itself in the middle of constant partisan issues. But that is just my opinion.