Whenever drama unfolds for the notoriously controversial producer deadmau5, you can be sure of one thing – he’d usually not let up so easily. Such is the case of his current drama, the battle between himself and major corporation Disney.
In case you missed it, Disney is trying to stop deadmau5 from trademarking his logo, claiming that allowing the trademark to pass would hurt Disney’s business in both the US and, well, the entire world. Thus, they’re doing it the best way they know how – by sending him a 171-page document and sending him to court (should he choose to go with trademarking the mau5 logo). But like we said, the mau5 wouldn’t go down without a fight.
Recently, he discovered that a minute and a half long Disney video titled, “Ghosts ‘n’ Stuff Re-Micks” uses a familiar soundtrack – “Ghosts ‘n’ Stuff”:
It sure gave deadmau5 enough ammo for his ongoing battle with Disney because apparently, Disney never sought authorisation from deadmau5 to use his track. Ah hah! And the plot thickens.
Hence, upon discovering the above video, deadmau5 went to town (on social media) to “share” the information. We say “share” but what we really mean “go on a ranting spree”. He accused Disney of wanting to “cash in on EDM” because Disney recently worked on a “Dconstructed” remix album with big names in the dance music industry such as Armin van Buuren, Kaskade, Avicii, and Mat Zo.
He also tweeted, “okay mouse … i never gave disney a liscene to use my track. So. we emailed you a C&D.” After which, he uploaded images of a cease-and-desist letter, in which deadmau5′s attorneys argue that Disney has been infringing his copyrights.
Having said that, Disney’s not about to back down so easily either. After all, it is a war amongst the mice!
A Disney spokesman told Rolling Stone that Disney “vigorously protects its trademark rights”. The full response to deadmau5′s complaints reads as such:
Disney vigorously protects its trademark rights, and we oppose Mr. Zimmerman’s attempt to register a logo that is nearly identical to our trademarks for his commercial exploitation. Our opposition is not about the use of the Deadmau5 costume. The music was appropriately licensed, and there is no merit to his statement.
Whoops? Your move, deadmau5.