Imposters pose as Disney lawyers

[Tom Morrow]

Iimposters pose as Disney lawyers

Scammers posing as Disney kill fan-made game The Escapist A fan-made "doujin" game featuring a Mickey Mouse parody has been shut down after scammers posing as Disney lawyers threatened legal action. "Doujin" and "Doujinshi" are terms used to refer to fan-made products often, but not always, based on existing characters. Those based on copyrighted material are technically illegal, at least according to Japanese copyright law, but Japanese companies tend to turn a blind eye provided the creators don't get too cheeky. Hanako, a "doujin" visual novel, recently made the headlines thanks to a scene in which players encounter Mickey Mouse. Shortly after images of the game reached gaming news sites, the development group, AmoRico, received an email from some enterprising scammers posing as Disney's legal team. The scammers wanted ¥6 million, around $78,000 US dollars, in reparations for the supposed copyright infringement. AmoRico eventually contacted a Disney rep, only to find out the company had never heard of Hanako or any legal threats. Unfortunately this brush with legal disaster seems to have spooked the game's developer, and he's calling it quits. While Disney has a long history of aggressively defending its trademarks, the company seems to have mellowed somewhat in recent years. In 2011, Disney took a British store-owner to court to prevent him from trademarking the name "Pooh Corner." Disney won the legal battle, but then granted the shop-owner permission to use the name anyway. The fact that J. artist Scott Campbell hasn't been sued into oblivion over his obviously-based-on-Disney-characters Fairy Tale Fantasies calendars, also indicates that Disney's lawyers may be losing their notorious thirst for blood. by Johnathan Grey Carter complete article

Submitted by Ezra

[Ezra]

Disney has eased-up on some of the trademark issues. They even declared that the old-skool Donald mascot costume that University of Oregon uses no longer closely resembles Donald Duck, so UofO can use it any way they like:

Disney: University of Oregon mascot is not Donald

I know that I covered the Pooh Corner story too, but I can't seem to find it. A shop in England called "Pooh Corner" sold A.A. Milne's books and Winnie-the-Pooh Classic toys (the ones by Gund that look like the E.H. Shepard illustrations, not the Disney ones). Disney legally challenged the use of the name "Pooh Corner" as a Disney-owned trademark. Disney won their case, then immediately gave the shopkeeper a licence to use that trademarked name for free.

I think they're trying to overcome their vicious legal reputation.