In the process they reaffirm traditional hierarchies of cultural production and reify the long-standing distinction between producer and consumer–assertions that are far from neutral in the current debates about cultural policy, and that work against the tide of emerging forms of creativity and collaboration.Keith Aoki, James Boyle, and Jennifer Jenkins, 2006, Bound by Law?, p.59. Moreover, though struggling between pedagogical and propagandistic impulses, these campaigns tend to traffic in and perpetuate industry-centric ideas, not only of what copyright is for, but also how technology is meant to be used and why culture is important.

File-trading is painted in moral terms of right and wrong. Their lessons on copyright law tend to recast a balance of societal interests as a simple obligation of respect. Through an examination of the materials themselves and interviews with their sponsors and designers, this essay interrogates these campaigns in terms of their characterization of copyright law and online infringement. To curb unauthorized downloading, the major film, music, and software corporations have developed public education campaigns aimed at children–designed for and delivered to schools as curricular materials to be incorporated into K-12 classrooms–extolling the virtues of copyright and the immorality of piracy. Drawing on legal research, analysis of the products themselves, conversations with Dr Seuss Enterprises and with his biographers, the article concludes that Seuss's Disneyfication is a symptom of a legal system designed to benefit capitalism more than moral or artistic values. After losing a 1968 case against companies that marketed 'Dr Seuss' products based on his 1932 Liberty Magazine cartoons, Dr Seuss accepted his lawyers' (and the court's) conclusion that trademark is more powerful than copyright, and approved the production of a vast array of Seussiana. However, the Disneyfication of Dr Seuss is not strictly a posthumous phenomenon. And, as this article points out, posthumously licensed products are more likely to encourage consumption for its own sake, whereas ones licensed during his lifetime tend to encourage creative or imaginative play. Since his death, Dr Seuss's name and characters have been used to promote cereal, credit cards, and action figures (among other things) this strategy has led many to cite Suess's indifference to money and his reluctance to exploit his characters for commercial gain. This essay takes a critical look at the Disneyfication of Dr Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel, 1904-1991), examining how a man whose books encourage critical thinking became a brand name, and is increasingly becoming an affirmation of consumer culture.

Bound by Law? by Keith Aoki