Disney-comics digest #544.

[Don Rosa]

FREDRIK:
	Of course, I haven't inspected their contract, but I'm rather
certain that Marvel has the same deal that all the other Disney comics
licensees have. In other words, if any other Disney comic licensee
worldwide took a fancy to one of the Disney stories produced by Marvel,
they would be free to reprint it, and not for a "nominal fee" -- it
would be absolutely free to them (or the cost of the photostats at
most). The only licensee that would not be allowed to do this would be
Gladstone since the license for animated-feature comics, TV comics and
"classic" (Dell) comics is split up in the U.S. The same applies to the
fact that Marvel cannot reprint any story that does not exclusively
feature those animated-feature characters it handles.

JORGEN:
	Very astute -- of course, in my version of "The Treasury of
Croesus", DD would not be singing that ABBA song. The story dealt with
Croesus, the king of ancient Lydia -- when the Ducks are approaching the
Museum, U$ asks DD what he knows of Lydia, and DD say he learned all
about Lydia watching the Late Show and goes into a rendition of "Lydia
the Tattooed Lady" (best known as the song Groucho sings in AT THE
CIRCUS). DD breaks into this song every few pages throughout the story
as the running gag. I knew when I wrote this into my story that it would
cause problems for translators, but sometimes I just ignore this problem
so that I won't be so burdened with it, and have faith in the able
translators to come up with their own solutions. I knew of Stefan Dios'
solution for his translation in KALLE ANKA & CO., and it seems a good
one. Of course, that song was not written when my story is supposed to
be taking place (c. 1955), but that's okay.
	The bigger problem will come when Gladstone reprints the story
-- I've recently found out that Gladstone cannot print a full line out
of a song that is still under copyright, and as old as "Lydia" is, it's
probably still covered by some ancient copyright as songs are. (For
instance, would you believe that "Happy Birthday to you" is covered by
a copyright, and every time it is sung in a movie or TV show, two
little old ladies here in Louisville get a check for 1 cent or
something like that. This answers the question you might have as to why
you hear that tune oddly paraphrased in movies now and then -- not to
avoid the 1 cent payment {only Disney would do that} but to avoid the
needless red tape.) Anyway, we'll worry about that problem when the
times comes -- perhaps Gladstone can use the original song by just
changing one word in each line? I had to change a few words even in my
script since the lyrics are rather risque for a 1995 Disney comic, even
though the tune was written about 70 years ago.