Do Americans have it better?

[speakingtohe]

Sounds a bit like life in the north. You can sleep in a cabin with holes in the roof and carry water to flush the toilet or sleep in a bus with a solid roof and no toilet. Still the rent is cheap and the neighbours are not right next door

[PDowns]

Well all good things come to those who wait, and wait, and wait.....

[Falcao]

Originally Posted by ficbot

here in Canada we still have life+50 copyrights

What about Mickey Mouse? Walt Disney died in 1966. Does that mean Mickey Mouse et al will be public in 2016?

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Falcao

What about Mickey Mouse? Walt Disney died in 1966. Does that mean Mickey Mouse et al will be public in 2016?

No.
The characters and their likenesses are trademarked.
And most, if not all, of the Disney copyrights are *corporate* not assigned to a human.
Also, just because a specific work featuring those characters ("Steamboat Willie", for example) might "fall" into the public domain does not mean the characters in it are fair game. The copyright only refers to that one specific work.
I'm not sure what all the fuss is about Mickey Mouse; Bugs Bunny is far cooler anyway.

[Ea]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

...

I'm not sure what all the fuss is about Mickey Mouse; Bugs Bunny is far cooler anyway.

Yep. The mouse is such a boring goody-two-shoes. Give me Bugs Bunny - or Donald Duck - any day

[citac]

: perks up : Did someone just mention my country?

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

Something along these lines was tried in the Bosnian regions, leading to great conversational difficulties. The then US president, Clinton, tried to help with the following actions; (from news clipping)

CLINTON DEPLOYS VOWELS TO BOSNIA
Cities of Sjlbvdnzv, Grzny to Be First Recipients Before an emergency joint session of Congress yesterday, President Clinton announced US plans to deploy over 75,000 vowels to the war-torn region of Bosnia.

The deployment, the largest of its kind in American history, will provide the region with the critically needed letters A,E,I,O and U, and is hoped to render countless Bosnian names more pronounceable. "For six years, we have stood by while names like Ygrjvslhv and Tzlynhr and Glrm have been horribly butchered by millions around the world," Clinton said. "Today, the United States must finally stand up and say 'Enough.' It is time the people of Bosnia finally had some vowels in their incomprehensible words. The US is proud to lead the crusade in this noble endeavor."

Hee! Where did you find this? I never saw it before! I'm having fun with the city names - they just typed a meaningless string of letters and not actually disemvoweled a couple of city names, like Mstr or Srjv or Zvrnk (we don't have a "y" in our alphabet, for example, or "x" and "w", except in foreign names).

The deployment, dubbed Operation Vowel Storm by the State Department, is set for early next week, with the Adriatic port cities of Sjlbvdnzv and Grzny slated to be the first recipients. Two C-130 transport planes, each carrying over 500 24-count boxes of "E's," will fly from Andrews Air Force Base across the Atlantic and airdrop the letters over the cities.

Hee! Adriatic port cities? I wish - our Adriatic coast has one town - Nm - and is 24.5 km (15 mi) long:

Citizens of Grzny and Sjlbvdnzv eagerly await the arrival of the vowels. "My God, I do not think we can last another day," Trszg Grzdnjkln, 44, said. "I have six children and none of them has a name that is understandable to me or to anyone else. Mr. Clinton, please send my poor, wretched family just one 'E.' Please."

Said Sjlbvdnzv resident Grg Hmphrs, 67: "With just a few key letters, I could be George Humphries. This is my dream." The airdrop represents the largest deployment of any letter to a foreign country since 1984. During the summer of that year, the US shipped 92,000 consonants to Ethiopia, providing cities like Ouaouoaua, Eaoiiuae, and Aao with vital,
life-giving supplies of L's, S's and T's.
-----------------

LOL at people names! "Grg" might become Grigorije, if he was an Orthodox Serb, or Grgur if he was a Catholic Croat! I can't think of a Bosnian Muslim name with those consonants right now. And most of our last names end with -ić or -ović, though not all and you can usually tell the nationality by name and last name.

As you can see, GB's usage of so many extra 'U's' is might actually be a good thing!

Stitchawl

I got such a good laugh out of this, you made my day!

[Falcao]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

No.
The characters and their likenesses are trademarked.
And most, if not all, of the Disney copyrights are *corporate* not assigned to a human.
Also, just because a specific work featuring those characters ("Steamboat Willie", for example) might "fall" into the public domain does not mean the characters in it are fair game. The copyright only refers to that one specific work.

Thanks, that makes sense.

I'm not sure what all the fuss is about Mickey Mouse; Bugs Bunny is far cooler anyway.

Agreed, give me Donald Duck any day.

[Latinandgreek]

Originally Posted by ladyjane

Proud Canadian here, have been for ***ty some years, I don't want for anything I can't get here, good health, crappy weather,fantastic family and my sony reader loaded to the hilt. What more could a girl want.

As an ex-pat living in a warm (Mediterranean) climate, I'd kill for some snow come Christmas time! I always thought that the weather was the only thing I wouldn't miss from Canada, and I was wrong about that! I'd also love to see the leaves changing this time of year...

[Latinandgreek]

Originally Posted by citac

I got such a good laugh out of this, you made my day!

Mine too! I'm going to show this to all my friends tomorrow, they'll get a kick out of it!

[CleverClothe]

Originally Posted by citac

: perks up : Did someone just mention my country?

...

I got such a good laugh out of this, you made my day!

I figured this would be a The Onion article, and sure enough...

http://www.inc.com/magazine/20060501/priority-web.html

[J. Strnad]

I would like to buy a vowel, please. I can't tell you the trouble my Bohemian name of "Strnad" has given me over the years!

About Mickey Mouse: Actually, if you look at the early Disney cartoons, Mickey was much less of a goody-two-shoes than he became in later years. Some of the early cartoons and comic books have indeed fallen out of copyright, but if you can find them, they're worth a look! The early Mickey was quite the stinker. (But my love is for the old Warner Bros. cartoons, which struck me as much funnier than anything the Disney studios put out. If you read about the early days with Leon Schlesinger at "termite terrace," you'll see how the old WB cartoonists were the bad boys of the industry, which came out in the characters of Bugs and Daffy.)

You'll also see a "babification" of the design of Mickey Mouse...making Mickey more baby-like in his appearance. You have to do a little research into character design to become aware of the changes, but they are real. (I worked at Disney for 3 1/2 years and got to know a number of the artists, and they educated me into these things.)

[lene1949]

Originally Posted by J. Strnad

I would like to buy a vowel, please. I can't tell you the trouble my Bohemian name of "Strnad" has given me over the years!

Uhm... yes... How do you pronounce it?

I have a lot of e's in my first 2 names... 6 in fact... plus another 2 in my surname..

[Latinandgreek]

Originally Posted by J. Strnad

I would like to buy a vowel, please. I can't tell you the trouble my Bohemian name of "Strnad" has given me over the years

I was lucky growing up, I had a slavic last name that is easy for anglophones to pronounce, but many of my friends didn't, I feel your pain. My current last name has 2 diacritics in it (but no vocalic r), my mom and my husband told me I would have been better off keeping my maiden name.

[m-reader]

Originally Posted by citac

I got such a good laugh out of this, you made my day!

This is an old "The Onion" article - classic

[citac]

Originally Posted by m-reader

This is an old "The Onion" article - classic

I never saw it before, it was fun. It's a good thing we can laugh about things like these, cause the situation right now is abysmal.