California school movie fundraiser foiled by Disney

BERKELEY, Calif. (KPIX) – Disney wants an elementary school to pay up after showing one of its movies during a fundraiser. It started with an Emerson Dad’s Club event in November.

In its school calendar listing of the event, the club said it was going to play the most recent CGI version of Disney’s “The Lion King.”

President of Emerson PTA David Rose said, “I think one of the dads owned the movie. He had bought it at Walmart or something like that, and we just basically threw it on while the kids were playing in the auditorium.”

But, just last Thursday, the school got this letter from a company called Swank Movie Licensing U.S.A. The company enforces Disney’s cinematic copyrights and the letter demanded $250 from the school because, well, let’s let the kids explain why. “The Disney place wanted some money because they owned, like, all of the movies,” Cora Gray-Droste said. Noah rose-Emerson added, “They showed the movie that they own, so they want the 250, well, they kind of want the $250.”

Copyright law says you cannot play 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.

Rose said, “The event made $800, so, you know, if we have to fork over a third of it to Disney, so be it. You know, it’s a lesson learned.”

But Emerson parent and Berkeley City Council Member Lori Droste said there is a larger issue than just Disney’s rights. This is not a wealthy school and, 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.”

But how did the licensing company find out that the DVD had been played? Did a parent turn them in or is the company scanning the internet and noticed the listing on the school website. No one knows for sure.

The PTO president plans to pay the fee and ask for donations to make up for the loss.