Saturday, July 03, 2004

The Mouse Caught Singing the Lion's Song

There are songs that force you to sing along, whether you want to or not.

The song The Lion Sleeps Tonight has that effect upon me. I suspect that I'm not alone. Disney used the song in their soundtrack in the film and play versions of The Lion King.

The family of the composer of the song is claiming copyright ownership over the song. While they might not be able to bring a legal action in the US, there might be a right to an action using a 1911 British imperial copyright law. At least in South Africa.

The song has some history. It's also been covered by quite a few people. It will be interesting to see what Disney does in this instance, knowing how much they value copyrights.

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