Biting the Lion’s Profits
The family of South African Solomon Linda can now enjoy a share of the profits generated by Disney’s mega-hit “The Lion King”.
Why? Solomon Linda, who died in 1963, wrote the original Zulu tune ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’ in 1939 which was used in the original Disney animated feature and follow up productions as well as CD-releases. While she originally sold off the rights in the song her family now argued that the rights should have reverted to them, entitling them to a backpayment and future royalties since TWDC did not sign a proper license agreement with them.
The according court-case was now settled - and the result is a small bite in the huge profits the franchise is still bringing in. BBC.co.uk reports:
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.
Sounds like a reasonable small bite that shouldn’t result in more than a little itching feeling for the giant lion but quite a large amount for any family, especially since it should become a rather steady income for years to come seeing the unbroken popularity of Disney’s The Lion King. Also settling looks like a reasonable thing to me, as it avoided any bad press for Disney. After all that report by BBC.co.uk was easy to miss, while the filing of the court case was all over the media around the globe!
March 23rd, 2006 at 9:05 am
A short update: CNN has now covered the story as well as can be seen at http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/Music/03/22/lion.sleeps.royalty.ap/index.html
According to this report though the settlement was reached with a US-record company and not directly with Disney.