TorrentFreak reports that the latest issue of Donald Duck magazine in The Netherlands depicts Donald and his nephews as music pirates who are threatened by the head of a record label — one Scrooge McDuck.

According to the website, the comic strip provides a lesson in copyright as Huey, Dewey and Lewey illegally download an album because they’re low on cash; they’ll buy it later when they have the funds. However, Donald decides there’s money to be made by copying and selling CDs. The boys are horrified, and tell him about copyright, adding, “If nobody buys CDs anymore, the record labels and artists will become beggars.”

Of course, Donald’s plan is thwarted by Uncle Scrooge, who warns him that’ll he’ll have to pay a hefty fine if he doesn’t stop pirating music.

Although some Dutch websites suspect anti-piracy group BREIN was behind the strip, the magazine’s editor said there was no outside involvement.

In related news, an Italian court has ordered Donald and his girlfriend Daisy, Mickey Mouse and Tweety Bird to testify in a counterfeiting trial.

Lawyers say the summons, which cites the fictional characters as damaged parties, seems to be a clerical error. The criminal trial involves a Chinese man accused of counterfeiting Disney and Warner Bros. products.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 5th, 2007 at 9:21 am and is filed under Comic Books, Disney, Legal, Music, Pop Culture, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.