I understand the response from Disey. I don't think it was hurtfull or heartless. they say no and offer something for rememberance other than a Disney custom thombstone. They could have just said "no". Their decision make sense to me.

As a mother, nothing would stop me from doing this if that's what my child was into. They say it would ruin their magic, but almost every single Disney movie has a death in it.... Bambi's mom, Simba's Dad, Elsa / Anna's parents, Where is Ariel's Mom? Belle's Mom? Oh dead. Snow White's Mom... dead. So don't sit there and say that it would ruin the magic. Have a friggin heart, besides, it's not like children of the masses would be visiting Ollie's grave and be like "Oh spiderman is on this grave, it's ruined" if anything they would think maybe he was protecting Ollie. Ridiculous.

I see where Disney is coming from, but I have seen headstones of Mickey and Minnie, Goofy, Cinderella, etc. Either Disney "okayed it" , or someone just ignored Disney and made it anyway.

Maybe someone needs to remind Disney that they aren't the people responsible for Spider Man, I bet Stan Lee would have let them use Spider Man on the grave. I suggest you buy a nice, good quality Spider Man Figurine, and leave that at the grave, f**k disney's response. And are they also forgetting what happened in infinity war!? Lets not forget all the deaths in the comics to begin with... including MJ's death, due to Peter's radioactive sperm causing her to get cancer in one of the universes.

just do it anyway

Yes own the rights to the characters...but their patrons were up a few years ago..Mickey mouse should be in public domain.. Congress extended Disney's Paton though..if I was in Congress id phone disney and threaten to take that extention aeay

I'm a bit stunned that Disney seems to have bought ALL the rights to Spider-man. That is actually rather depressing.

Sorry, but.... nobody has the right to use or abuse something illegally because they "loved it", potentially ruining the experience for the billions of other kids, and not having a shred of understanding, just harping on the "soul-less" corporation. Disney's response was respectful and these guys showed not a hint of understanding for the millions of other fans, not to mention other grieving people who might find it disrespectful to have their loved ones buried next to a colorful childish display . Quote:"My brother’s life has been shattered, it has shattered the whole family. We can’t move on until we have his headstone done", sorry but, really? It has shattered your life more than the actual death of the boy? REALLY? Put a spiderweb on it, something that isn't copyrighted, just find a way around the tragedy! of not being able to put Spiderman on a tombstone, and ffs do not almost make Disney responsible for your child's death. Manage your grief.

Yet WB allows a string of pay by the hour motels to use Tweety's image...

First they killed Star Wars and now this! F Disney

are you serious?! Disney, there is a boy who absolutely LOVES Spider-Man, and there is literally a freakin' GRIEVING father, and you can't even do one thing for a kid? when you make things FOR kids? you seriously messed up Disney. make it right and just do it. its not that hard.

Why do they think they're entitled to put a licensed character on a tombstone? Yes, a little boy dies and that's horrible, but lots and lots of children die every day.

I would go ahead and have the tomb stone made with the text without the image of Spiderman. Then I would later go to the tombstone with a stencil of Spiderman and sandblast it in myself with a portable sand blaster, or some other etching device like a Dremel or something.

why on earth am i reading this?go home and grief

This was honestly pretty sad to read. Then again, it's one of the sad truths of this world.

And where are these big men and their big....if had money I would put Spiderman on that kids tombstone and challenge disney to sue me..a zuckenburg vs disney legal battle would be out of this world.

I know this is old now and just seeing it, but I would be a little smart ass to that response. Yes, I do understand why Disney said what they said, but it doesn’t make it hurts less. I understand their reasoning and agree to it more with Disney specific created characters. Marvel and Star Wars characters were not created by Disney in my opinion. However, I will still respect them and appreciate the kind response. Then I would not put Spider-Man on the tombstone, but I sure would do everything else I could. Ex: Spider-Man merchandise like toy, stake in the ground with Spider-Man flag or metal-work of a Spider-Man figure. On the tombstone I would make them add colors of red and blue with images of cobwebs and a quote at the bottom (quotes are free use as long as cited) “With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility” by Spider-Man or put a picture of an actual spider that was Blue snd red. I would have found a loop hole somehow. Or secretly I would commission a art piece from online artist to draw his son swinging with Spider-Man in the city and put that picture in my living room framed.

Before disney bought the charater this would have been allowed. What are they going to do tear down the tomb stones that went up before they bought it. This policy should NOT extend to charters created by other people and bought by disney. Dear disney you didnt make that.

this was such a sad article and I see both sides of the story and agree with both sides...but its WAYYYYY to early to be making nazi jokes. As a jew myself I think that was terrible, comparing a company that's trying not to lose it's business. to a heartless army that killed 6 million jews, and did so much more.

It is so ironic that the company that has been accused many times of the theft of artists' works (including Walt Disney himself, who stole the figure of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit) refuses to use the image of the character that bought not created. Disney had a lot of lawsuits because he steadily steals the work of artists-fans and uses them to create gadgets on which he later earns millions. In addition, Walt Disney forbade the use of fairy-tale characters to not be associated with death, but Spiderman is a comics character. Shame on you, Disney!

So the Council couldn't because of the copyright laws, granted. So have someone make a cover out of fabric or plastic and slip it over the headstone. It's a personal use, not covered by copyright laws and it's just you decorating your child's grave which absolves the Council of any legal responsibility.

I would look for a "generic" type graphic, that resembles Spiderman to a point. I'm sure there are many out there.

Wouldn't allowing the gravestone put Disney in a positive light and improve their relations with their fan base thus creating more revenue due to the extra respect gained from such a heartfelt gesture? It's not like they are short of money

It’s a slipery slope for Disney, if they allow this poor dad to create that headstone, it sets legal precedent for others to use Disney characters as they like, abusing their copyright in other ways, which could ultimately lead to their copyrighted characters being associated with things they don’t want to be associated with. It looks shady in this exact situation, but in the broader picture, which big companies like Disney always have to consider, I can understand why they handled it the way they did. There’s lots of other ways the dad could honor his son through Spiderman. He just have to be creative.

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Disney has always fed on the art work and lore of others. Disney has appropriated so many stories from every time and culture and, IMO made a mess of them, and they now pretend that they own them. Example; Zoltan Korda s 'The Jungle Book' put to film in 1942 is a beautiful movie and nothing at all to do with Disney.

Seeing that tiny guy all tubed up with Spiderman watching over him got me choked up. I really hope there is an afterlife, and you're there little guy. Swinging from cloud to cloud with your webshooter, laughing all the while.

What a bunch of hypocrites. Magic and innocence my butt. Selfishness and cold -heartedness is more like it.

As a marketing person I get protecting the brand. I think MOST companies would deny a request for use of their branding on a tombstone (or a car or a building or any other outside use). The funny part though is the "we don't want our characters associated with death" line. Don't they kill off multiple beloved characters - mother's, fathers, friends, etc. in their cartoons marketed toward even their youngest viewers/fans?!?!