An elementary school in Berkeley has been ordered to pay up for playing the 2019 version of “The Lion King” during a fundraising event at the school.
The school was sent an email by Movie Licensing USA stating that they received an alert that the film was being shown at the event, which according to them is a violation.
CBS 58 reports:
It happened in November when the Dad’s Club of the PTA presented a “parent’s night out” fundraiser at Emerson Elementary to support the school.
In its school calendar listing, the club said it was going to play the most-recent version of the Disney animated film, “The Lion King.”
“I think one of the dads owned the movie. He had bought it at Walmart and we just basically threw it on while the kids were playing in the auditorium,” said PTA president David Rose.
But last Thursday, five months later, the school got a letter from a company called SWANK Movie Licensing USA. The company enforces Disney’s cinematic copyrights and the letter demanded $250 from the school for playing the film without a license.
Copyright law says you cannot display a movie outside of your home to any size audience for entertainment purposes without paying a licensing fee. The dads didn’t realize that and now appear to be on the hook for the $250 one-time showing fee.
“The event made $800, so if we have to fork over a third of it to Disney, so be it. You know, lesson learned,” said Rose.
But Emerson parent and Berkeley City Council member Lori Droste believes there is a larger issue than just Disney’s rights. The PTA’s fundraisers don’t just support frivolous items. They help pay for teachers and vital services at the school.
“Here you have a company that makes so much money and we have schools that are struggling so much,” Droste said. “What I thought about was just the irony of having a multi-billion dollar company essentially ask a school to pay up.”
Droste told CNN, “There was an initiative passed in 1979 called Proposition 13 which casts the property tax on all land, and so Disney’s property tax rates are at 1978 values, which translates into millions upon millions of dollars a year that Disney is not paying.” She gone on to say, “Because of that, our schools are now extremely underfunded. We went from the ’70s being among the top education systems in the US to one of the lowest.”
She also added, “We would be enthusiastic about paying the license fee if Disney was willing to have their properties reassessed and pay some additional property taxes.”
The PTA president says the organization will pay the fee but hope to gain it back with donations.
Now come on Disney, an elementary school? We’re pretty sure this giant company isn’t struggling for money. A warning would be even better than this fine.
So now the question is: Who snitched?
Leave us a comment below and tell us what you think of this situation.
For those who would like to donate, visit Heart of Emerson.
Thanks for all of your emails/tweets regarding “Emerson vs Disney.” A few people have asked how they can help support Emerson PTA.
Here is a link. Thank you for your generosity. https://t.co/voY45ctIlm
— Lori Droste (@loridroste) February 3, 2020
