but they said that they make a billion dollars a year

不过当时他们单单是
just from Sponge Bob,

对海绵宝宝的授权
the licensing on Sponge Bob.

就有十亿收入
Forget the show and

这还不算海绵宝宝的收视收益
forget the advertising that happens during the show,

和中间插播的广告收益
this is just for the licensing of Sponge Bob for various products,

仅仅是向其它企业收取各种产品授权费
and you can see some examples of them here.

他们公司还有其它类似的例子
There's a lot of character licensing going on,

这样的人物或造型授权事例还有很多
and people come down in different places about this.

不同地方的人们都开始投身这个行业
Some people feel,

一些人认为
well it's sort of free enterprise,

这就类似自由企业
and the people who own--who developed these characters,

开发并拥有这些人物形象的人们