The family that claims to own the rights to the international hit ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight‘ has settled with the Walt Disney Company after its reportedly unauthorized use in the hit animated feature Disney’s The Lion King.
The song has reportedly earned more than $15m (£8.4m) because of its use in the The Lion King movies, but Mr Linda’s family received $15,000 (£8,400). The settlement involves back payment of royalties to the family and the right to participate in future payments on a worldwide basis.
$15,000 doesn’t seem like a lot at just 0.1% of estimated earnings. But the right to continue to collect 0.1% might be worth something.
[ disney, animation, the+lion+king, lawsuit, settlement, disney+animation, wdfa, song, lion+sleeps+tonight ]
This is a bit of a tough one. I agree taht the family deserves compensation, but they shouldn’t have been suing Disney, who acted with due diligence and licensed the song from the company whom it seemed held the rights.
This isn’t a case of Disney trying to rip any one off. As for the amount, if you figure that the license for a song is $91 per 1000 recordings sold, it isn’t a great way to make a whole lot of money.
For the family’s sake, I hope that their other lawsuits, against the companies who were wrongfully selling the rights, go well.
Just wanted to note that $15,000 is not 1% of $15 million–it’s actually 0.1%. 1% would be $150,000, and would (at least in my bank account) be significantly more money. It’s crazy to have a royalty of only one-tenth of a percent–I’m glad the family is getting a larger share of the money.
Comments are closed.