I got a chuckle out of reading this on Slashdot today.
Basically, Disney Corp has acquired the copyright to an original Disney character (Oswald the Lucky Rabbit) by trading their employment contract for human sportscaster Al Michaels to NBC. Ub Iwerks, who created Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and, arguably, Mickey Mouse, seems like a pretty under appreciated guy. There’s even some debate as to whether Walt Disney created any of his cartoon characters or stole credit for all of them from Ub Iwerks, but that’s a different story.
Can you imagine how the human being in this trade, Al Michaels, feels? “Gee, I’m worth about as much as a cartoon character no one has ever heard of”. That’s got to be a bit depressing….
Technorati Tags: Disney, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Al Michaels, Ub Iworks