"One thing I would point out is that, technically, nothing is illegal until ruled so by a court.
Anything other than a court ruling is personal opinion (even if it IS pretty obvious and common sense should tell you that it is)."
That may be technically true, but a person is taking a gamble on whether or not they will be prosecuted. If there are laws on the books, no matter how grey they might be, there is still a risk.
"Regarding Disney trawling the net, we often get news reports over here in the UK of various sites being closed down for copyright infringement and even ice cream carts being told to remove their pictures of Mickey and Donald. We are told that Disney (and other firms) employ people to protect their copyrights by doing this (Disney is reported as the most active).
The reasons given are that if Disney allowed the use of their copyright material (without permission) without enforcing their copyright, over time it could become accepted as in the "public domain" and they could lose the copyright altogether.
May just be some anti-USA hype but that's what appears on the news over here.
I don't have any Disney contacts to check this with, however (unlike some here)."
I think this is true in the US as well. However, I think it is the more blatant misuse of famous characters. If someone has Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Tigger, etc. plastered on something not licensed, they are being pretty obvious about it. With records, it's not as clear cut. The person is not making a profit on it. Although maybe a daycare center might not be making a profit off of the Disney characters, they are using them to promote an image...and if there are any practices that come to light that don't match the Disney image...there is trouble.
We've had stories here about said daycare centers using Disney characters, stores, etc. Recently there was a crackdown on costumed characters for children's birthday parties. Most of them are not licensed, so they try to skirt around any copyright issues by altering the characters slightly to get by. It's still not enough. So, companies, (Disney included) are getting tough with them because their images are being tarnished by these low-rent costumes and performers.
I remember one instance in high school. There was a liquor store near the school that was called "Mickey Mart" and had Mickey's image in the logo. I don't need to point out what that could do to Disney's image...so in a few months the sign was changed and Mickey was dropped. Somebody noticed and obviously did something about it.
