Copyright

Polly has told Basil his brochure cover needs some spicing up.

...

Basil: There. I added a Mickey Mouse.

Polly: You can’t do that.

Basil: Who says?

Polly: Copyright law says you can’t. You can’t copy their mouse. Disney still owns it. You can’t copy the form and manner. They can’t stop you using an original picture of a mouse.

Basil: All right. How about if I put in a picture of some other mouse?

Later:

Basil: There. It’s not Disney, it’s a photo I took myself.

Polly: A real rat? It gets attention, and copyright law won’t get you but do you think any guests will come?

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Voice-over

Polly is quite right about Mickey, but Disney doesn’t own the idea of mice, anthropomorphic or real. Basil, as usual however, goes to an extreme.

But then, there is the issue of copyright in parody photographs... For some, parody is how they survive and make sense of life.

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