Disney's earliest Mickey and Minnie Mouse enter public domain as US copyright expires

BBC ^ | 31st December 2023 | Noor Nanji

[nickcarraway]

It was the animation that launched the House of Mouse.

Steamboat Willie, a 1928 short film featuring early non-speaking versions of Mickey and Minnie, is widely seen as the moment that transformed Disney's fortunes and made cinema history.

Their images are now available to the public in the US, after Disney's copyright expired.

It means creatives like cartoonists can now rework and use the earliest versions of Mickey and Minnie.

[Vaduz]

I can see it now the media will have Mickey and Minnie going tranny Mickey with tits................

[webheart]

I’ve never worn mouse ears.

[Jumper]

Disney has what they really want - Donald Duke without Pants, and “penis or virgina” of the Day, where the front part goes. That old Micky and Minnie do not convey any sexual deviancy.

[Chode]

[cowboyusa]

😂😂. DMM FDR.

[Chode]

yup...

[Secret Agent Man]

Nope. FAIR USE PARODY.

[Mr. K]

This might be one law that works as intended. How would you like to spill your guts running a book and somebody else publishes it and takes all the money?

[NorthMountain]

Steamboat Willy

I'd like to see Steampunk Willy ...

[zeugma]

The Public Domain Day page at Duke.edu has a lot of information about works that are now in the Public Domain. There is also a great article about what you can and cannot do with Mickey now that his first 2 films are in the Public Domain. There are issues to consider if using it, and Disney is hyper litigious even though they borrow very heavily from the Public Domain for their works.

[zeugma]

This might be one law that works as intended. How would you like to spill your guts running a book and somebody else publishes it and takes all the money?

Yes, and no. The biggest problem I have is that it has been extended so many times and is now so long that it actually does a severe disservice to the public, and mainly only benefits corporations, that are essentially immortal.The original copyright term was 14 years, for which you could apply for one extension giving a total of 28 years of protections, which actually longer than almost any work actually needs. It is interesting to look at historical data and see what small percentage of copyrighted works were ever extended to the full 28 year term.I would strongly favor a return to the 28-year maximum. The entirety of the Beatles catalog should be in the public domain my now.

[SauronOfMordor]

The problem with long copyright periods is that works long out of print can be permanently lost if there’s no available copy once copyright expires.

14-28 years should be sufficient. 40 if and only if an electronic copy is given to the copyright office, to be archived until copyright expires, and then downloadable afterwards.

[nicollo]

The Mouse is dead. Long live the Mouse!

[17th Miss Regt]

Have you seen the Mickey Rat comics?

[zeugma]

The problem with long copyright periods is that works long out of print can be permanently lost if there’s no available copy once copyright expires.

Absolutely. This is one reason Project Gutenberg is such a Godsend. They are scanning in and making ebooks available for free download, and have been doing so for ages.

[NorthMountain]

Mickey Rat?

Can’t say that I’ve seen it ...

[zeugma]

40 if and only if an electronic copy is given to the copyright office, to be archived until copyright expires, and then downloadable afterwards.

I actually like the idea of the copyright office requiring that a digital copy be provided (Without encumbering DRM). The "EPUB" format is a fully documented specification that can be used with almost any document type, and is not "owned" by any particular company.

For any document type that cannot be documented via EPUB,(Perhaps an example would be musical scores) I'd recommend a DRM document type be developed and documented via the standard internet RFC methods that can handle it. That way you do not have to worry so much about bitrot associated with abandoned proprietary document formats.