2023-11-16 19:25:46
BarcelonaThe message is clear: you better not think of copying a multinational like Disney. A music producer who for years plagiarized his shows by passing them off as Disney products has been sentenced by the Spanish Supreme Court to six years in prison, a fine of 8,500 euros and compensation of 40,000 euros to Disney, for the crime against intellectual and industrial property.
The producer presented The king of the savannah, the lion king on tour around the state, according to EFE. In fact, he had devoted himself to making several works suspiciously similar to Disney titles, such as Supercalifragilistic, referring to Mary Poppins, between 2014 and 2016. A commercial court in Valencia already fined him 81,000 euros for plagiarism and forbade him to continue with the work. Now the final sentence ratifies what the Court and the Supreme Court of Valencia said. The accessory penalties are the disqualification from performing plays for more than three years and supervised release for seven years, the payment of the cost of the trial and 6,000 euros more for an international company in charge of the licenses.
The convict had defended that he was only an intermediary and that he had nothing to do with the authorship, plagiarism and distribution of the works, which the witnesses (even his employees) and the contractors contradicted. When Disney sued him, the courts found that he had registered the trademark Lion King and its soundtrack. In fact, in 2011 Disney signed exclusivity with another production company in Spain: Stage premiered The Lion King that year in Madrid’s Gran Via, and it’s still on the bill. An official poster, by the way, which the convict had also plagiarized. In fact, he engaged in using keywords from the original works to create confusion, and used the trademarks but with minimal aesthetic or script or set design changes. Sometimes he quoted The king of the savannabut no The Lion King.
The convict, who had a history of fraud, also asked some promoters and councils for the copyright, and claimed that he managed them. Even at trial, when he admitted he didn’t have the rights to Disney Enterprises, he argued that he did have the rights to the music, which the owners denied.
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