If so, it most assuredly is NOT "a Disney character" to do with as it pleases, since it is based on Scandinavian legend and written by Hans Christian Anderson! It is Anderson's character, since he is the first and ONLY one to write the story!
Cinderellas and Snow White are likewise NOT "Disney characters" at all, either, as there are over 500 different Cinderella stories world wide, all of which have their origins in the Ancient Greek myth Eros and Pysche AND both the German and the French versions are THE most well known now.
Tinkerbell is a Victorian/Edwardian BRIT fictional character.
And what Disney did to the Princess and The Frog is reprehensible; not to mention disgusting.
NO, she's the disney retelling of Hans Christian Anderson's tale. In the original Hans Christian Anderson story the mermaid was nameless
And note that the original story was also a "story" - fiction. So the Mermaid could be played by anyone else - a black, chinese, white, whatever person
And Hans wrote the story himself, it's not based on Scandanavian legend
Disney's stories utterly changed the story of the little mermaid (Hans' story ain't happy) and the same for the Disneyfied Cinderella and Snow White.