As a kid, my favorite movie ever made was Walt Disney's Peter Pan. As an adult, I have a tattoo on my shoulder mapping out the directions to Neverland (second star to the right, and straight on 'til morning). Disney was a major part of my childhood. I lived an hour north of Disney World in Orlando and visiting the park just so happened to be my families favorite summer endeavor. Point being, there will always be a soft spot in my heart for the company and strong will to defend it. In Janet Wasko's essay, she exposes Disney's strict copyright enforcement as brutally inappropriate when "Disney threatened to sue three Florida day-care centers," because they displayed images of copyrighted characters.

This is the real world people. Because Disney stands for celebration and being forever childlike, we have to remember that in and of itself, it is an incredibly successful company in Corporate America. Society associates Disney with images of cartoon characters, not lawyers with briefcases storming into day-cares. The circumstances are grim, however, had SunTrust sued Bank of America for the use of a copyrighted logo, the negative connotation is skewed. Each are businesses operating under certain laws. Copyright infringement is copyright infringement no matter if the guilty party is a day-care or any other business.

In the essay, a Disney representative, Paul Pressler, is quoted to have said, "Our characters are the foundation of our business and project the image of our company, so it's imperative that we control who uses them and how they are used." When these images appear on associations separate from Disney, a person automatically makes a correlation between the two. Although, some may argue that painting Mickey Mouse on the wall of a day-care center is harmless, it is arguable that the day-care center could potentially mistreat children, be exposed and the images displayed create an association with Disney, which ultimately leads to the loss of customers.

I have heard rumors all of my life about an underground Disney World. It's the place where all of the characters go to change out of their costumes and the inner workings of Disney really take place. I have been told that it spans all beneath the theme park. Much like underground Disney, the economical, political and administrative aspects of the company are very much an underlying layer to the whimsical facade. We are taught equality as Americans, so why do we so critically judge one companies actions, when the same instance occurs in so many more cases than Disney's and not a head turns?