During a Thursday night Fox News appearance on “The Ingraham Angle” alongside Christopher Rufo, Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) discussed a letter he had sent to Disney CEO Bob Chapek. This includes a reminder that “Disney loses its Mickey Mouse copyright on January 1, 2024.” To renew it, as Congress has stepped in to do multiple times, is not something the congressman can support.
“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,” Rep. Banks wrote in his letter.
Speaking to Laura Ingraham, Rep. Banks said “this is probably a long time coming,” pointing out “at the end of the day we take our kids to Disney World for family vacation, not indoctrination.” Ingraham suggested that “they just take it for granted that they’re going to have their copyrights extended forever,” also adding that “I think Congress has to start examining this across the board for a lot of companies.”
The letter had also called out Disney for how it “has sought to expand business in China by kowtowing to its Communist regime,” leading to a closeness with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Disney even filmed its 2020 film “Mulan” in Xinjiang province, where the genocide and forced slave labor against Uyghur Muslims is taking place. To add insult to injury, Disney gave a special thanks to the local CCP authorities in the movie credits. Rep. Banks also told Ingraham that he hadn’t seen Disney attack a Chinese law.
According to disturbing insight from a Disney employee, who goes by the pseudonym of Ethan L. Clay in a Quillete article that was published on Tuesday, 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.” Rep. Banks went on to write in his letter that such information “suggests Disney is purposefully influencing small children with its political and sexual agenda.”
As Rufo tweeted about and Katie covered on Wednesday, Disney corporate president Karey Burke spoke of having a transgender child and a pansexual child and said she supports having “many, many, many LGBTQIA characters in our stories” and wants a minimum of 50 percent of characters to be LGBTQIA and racial minorities. Burke is mentioned in Rep. Banks’ letter as well.
Banks’ letter highlights Disney’s wading into opposing the Parental Rights in Education Act, which translates to a support of an indoctrination of children too young to discuss topics involving gender identity and sexual orientation with, to be sure. It also illustrates Disney’s entitlement, though.
“The Constitution gives Congress the authority to determine the length of time to protect copyrights. Further, it explicitly states that copyrights may not be permanent. Yet Disney’s long history of lobbying on this issue suggests that is its goal,” Banks’ letter tellingly notes.
While Disney’s copyright from Mickey Mouse was initially to be protected until 1984, Congress in 1976 amended the law to extend the copyright until 2003, thanks to lobbying from Disney. Congress extended the copyright yet again in 1998 with the Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act, also known as the Mickey Mouse Protection Act.
Polls show that the bill, which DeSantis signed into law this week, has support from Floridians, even and including Democrats.
This is an excerpt from Townhall.
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