Why Disney Is Annoying
500 Words on Thursday | Written by Lee Schneider
I am a dedicated hater of Disney. Some days I set aside an hour just so that I can hate the logo. It looks like a cute mouse, but it’s really a corporate monolith that lives and breathes the profit motive. Nearly all Disney lawyers have sharp teeth and scary-long fingernails, and Disney sends its representatives into hospital maternity wards to give product demos and take emails from new moms so they can market to babies fresh from the womb.
Actually, one part of that sentence is true: The part about maternity wards and marketing to newborns. It’s true: Disney is going into hospitals and giving away a onesie and taking the mom’s email. It sounds generous, but it’s just another corporate invasion of marketing into life, and they also put a chip into each onesie to program the newborn to like Disney products.
Actually, only one part of that sentence is true. The second part, about the chip implant, is what they wish they could do, because they are closed source, not open source.
Bear with me a sec? I can explain this. Disney is closed source because it protects its intellectual “property,” even through much of that “property” originated in the public domain. Disney will sue you over your use of anything having to do with Snow White, even though nobody really owns the character of Snow White because she was created a while ago. Disney and Viacom and other big companies take ownership over lots of free media and charge us to enjoy it. We aren’t allowed to mix it or play with it, because it’s “theirs.” It’s not really, but their lawyers have sharp teeth and scary-long fingernails. Closed source means somebody can sue you. Closed source is the mark of monoliths like Microsoft who are working from the past.
Open source is different. WordPress, which is what I’m using to publish this blog, is open source. Anybody can use it, modify it, play with it. It’s free. Open VBX is another example. It’s a free interface for internet telephones, and it works with Twilio.com, a cloud computing app which is not free, but open source and cheap. Open source is good and can be used to do good. Open Architecture Network shares designs for housing, schools and community centers over the world. Its designs serve people in need. The platform? A free, open source platform called Drupal.
Open source is the future and closed source is the past.
Closed Source: The New York Times: Nice people, but they’re rumored to be on life support. It will help their longevity to keep the use of their online material free and not go to mandatory subscriptions.
Closed source: Facebook. Facebook content can’t be openly searched. Give Facebook time – it will have to become open source to survive.
Special case: The Huffington Post. It’s open source content, because people like me can write for it, but it was just acquired by one of the most evil closed source companies, AOL. What does that mean? Tell you in next week’s 500.
Photo credit: David Ashleydale via Creative Commons.
I hear you. This is tangentical, but apparently Facebook is supposed to be the next, ultimate marketing tool for pimping one’s products/services. I find that offensive, as the people on FB that are my friends are just that–not “prospects.” Reminds me of life insurance agents–who put the arm on friends and family to buy policies, and coach Little League teams and join every civic organization for more prospects. Seems cynical to a cynic like me.
Can one escape the clutches of advertising/marketing in this “culture” of ours? Only by living in a cave on some mountain. But who wants to live in a cave? I do–dirt floors, no need to sweep or vacuum.
AOL acquiring Huffington Post is certainly an odd combination. Hopefully it’s a move by AOL to change themselves, rather than to just absorb The Post. We’ll see.
My prediction is that the marriage will not go well and Arianna will buy the Huffington Post back in a couple of years.
But… Bob. I thought you were a prospect. (beat) Kidding! Especially here in California, everybody seems to be a prospect and we’re all supposed to make friends of our business people and do business with our friends. For some people, it works. But for corporations, never. Thanks for commenting – I always appreciate it.