Foreign Policy featured this piece by CGD senior fellow Charles Kenny on the economic consequences of Disney's efforts to limit the free flow of ideas.
From the Article
Everybody loves Disney. Last year, Walt's empire was the No. 1 entertainment business in Fortune's annual ranking of the most admired companies in the world, and it's regularly a star performer in corporate-responsibility ratings. And why not? Global comity has been central to Disney's image ever since EPCOT Center, with its pavilions honoring the local traditions of countries from Canada to China, opened its gates. On Disneyland's venerable It's a Small World ride, boat passengers drift through a trippy, 1960s-vintage global village, the speakers blaring, "There's so much that we share/that it's time we're aware/it's a small world after all."
The Walt Disney Company, however, seems to think that we're sharing too much already. For years, Mickey's minions have been a powerful force in shaping the global trading regime in ways that limit the free flow of ideas, with real economic consequences. Behind its facade of global goodwill, Disney is playing the evil stepmother to the developing world's entrepreneurial Cinderellas.