Copyright law could be adjusted to remove protections for de-published works.

In May, Disney+ announced a content removal plan designed to cut US$1.5bn worth of content, meaning it substantially reduces the company’s value, giving it a lot less tax to pay.

Can someone who has a stronger grasp of corporate tax law explain this too me? They have the content, have paid for it, yet by not releasing it they get a tax break? That makes zero sense to my simple mind.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

A vast, expensive Disney+ prequel to Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Nautilus promised to tell the early story of Captain Nemo as he embarked on an epic submarine adventure, seeking revenge on his former captors the East India Company.

The television industry has a long history of dropping previously announced shows for a variety of reasons – 2004’s animated Popetown was canned by the BBC after complaints from Catholics, 2017’s The Cops was axed after reports of creator Louis CK’s sexual misconduct came to light, and 2021’s Ultimate Slip ’N Slide was cancelled after the crew all came down with a highly infectious variant of explosive diarrhoea that can be spread through tainted water.

Disney isn’t the only network to abandon shows that have largely been made, with HBO Max cancelling the second season of feminist porn comedy Minx just as it was finishing production (only for Starz to buy it, saving it from never seeing the light of day).

In a similar move, Warner Bros Discovery has also removed dozens of shows like Westworld, Raised by Wolves, Gordita Chronicles, Run and Love Life from its platforms to save money, as has Paramount+ with its Grease spin-off The Pink Ladies and Jordan Peele’s Twilight Zone remake.

During the last writer’s strike in 2008, this sort of delay spelt the end for shows such as Bionic Woman, The 4400 and Cavemen, so it isn’t unreasonable to assume that some of this year’s crop will also fail to return.

You could reconcile all the years of effort, hard work and frustration that it took to bring your idea to fruition with the fact that it would always be around, on a submenu somewhere, ready to be discovered.

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