Huey, Dewey and Louie on piracy: "record companies and artists would become beggars!"

Image: The Duck piracy ring’s plant. Source: Disney.

A reader of the FOK blog noticed that a comic in this week’s Dutch “Donald Duck” magazine is a bit too close for comfort to the rhetoric typically spouted by the local (Disney-sponsored) MPAA office, Brein. In a two page story that sees Donald Duck trying to sell illegal copies of a music CD, only to be thwarted in the end by Scrooge McDuck, the nephews explain their reasons for wanting to buy the expensive (30 dollar!), non-pirated CD: “But that’s not fair! This CD is COPYRIGHTED! If nobody would buy CDs anymore, the record companies and artists would become beggars!”

Considering that the record company is owned by Scrooge McDuck, and considering typical industry practice, you have to wonder if the artists aren’t already beggars. One of the FOK forum subscribers: “They used to print »(advertisement)« about items like that.”

Meanwhile, Donald Duck’s editor-in-chief has stated that the tone of voice of this particular comic is indeed atypical for the magazine, and has also denied any Brein involvement.

Disclaimer: I have written for Donald Duck magazine myself. To my knowledge, over the top moralistic tales were not required nor desired by the “happy weekly,” as the magazine dubs itself. I published a longer version of this post at the Dutch curiosa blog 24 Oranges.