Egmont is bribed by record companies

Egmont (www.egmont.se) is the company that is responsible for the distribution of Kalle Anka OC (Donald Duck comic).

In issue 30 year 2009 there is a story called En laddad affär on page 35 and 36. The script is done by Ruud Straatman (http://coa.inducks.org/creator.php?c=RSt).

Update 2009-07-28: Egmont has said that they are very sorry about publishing the story and that it shouldn't happen again. [Hedda] has made a report to KonsumentOmbusmannen (KO) about that it's a purely advertising for buying CDs and should be treated as such. Which is a big story apparently...


The "story" is, first page:
Dewey, Huey, and Louie want money to buy a CD. But then Donald hear them play the CD even though they can't afford is and they explained that they had downloaded the music and put on a writable CD that they can listen to until they can afford the original. Donald tells them to be satisfied with the copy, but they say that it would be dishonest and wrong to the owners of copyright because they have to earn money (the comment about that most artists gets more money from doing other stuff like concerts is conveniently left out).

Second page:
Donald figure out that an empty CD costs almost nothing, so he buys an original and starts to make pirate copies. Then Scrooge McDuck jumps in and threatens to fine him for piracy. Dewey, Huey, and Louie get happy because they got the original that is so much better and they destroy the copied CD.

Why this is awful
Dewey, Huey, and Louie would never be that passionate about owning an original CD (They might surely love posters and stuff, but this is just obvious product placement.), and they would definitely not create waste by for no good reason destroy a CD.

Donald isn't always honest, but engaging in industrial illegal activity is not him.

Scrooge makes money by making stuff better and cheaper than other, not by hiring lawyers.

The comic is really not funny in any way.

Conclusion: It's only made to market how wonderful it is to buy original CDs, that music has to be bought and that copying can get you into serious problems (despite the fact that record companies are really nice guys).

Maybe a better version: <URL:stuff/kalleanka.jpg>




The Dutch original version:





If you know Swedish, this is a "corrected" version:

Here Donald is locking up the kids because they became members of the Swedish Pirate Party. But they get released by a RIAA-raid that only found free music that anyone can copy and share. Donald gets the idea to destroy capitalism by copying the CD as much as he can. Scrooge jumps in and says that there is no use because all Donald is doing is giving him free advertising, and the kids cheers saying "Yay, Scrooge is also a pirate!".

And another one:

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