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40 years after it was originally supposed to. Steamboat Willie finally enters public domain as of today.

Kadve

Kadve

Member
www.bbc.com

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

Disney's copyright on the earliest version of the cartoon characters expires in the US on 1 January.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com

It finally happened after years worth of lobbying by Disney in order to get the Copyright Term extended (Including the infamous "Mickey Mouse Protection Act" of 1998) but i guess they finally gave up.

1280px-Extended_Tom_Bell%27s_graph_showing_extension_of_U.S._copyright_term_over_time.svg.png

Note though that Disney makes it clear though that this "only" applies to the 1928 version of Mickey mouse (whatever that means) and that the character is still trademarked. Meaning you cant sell anything featuring him if it "has a chance of being mistaken for a Disney product".
 
NecrosaroIII

NecrosaroIII

Ultimate DQ Fan
We need to reform copyright law. It's robbing society of ideas becoming part of culture as folktales did long ago.

I'm okay with it lasting the duration of the life of the author, but there isn't any reason why a corporation should own these ideas in perpetuity.
 
D

Deleted member 1159

Unconfirmed Member
Quick GAF post steam boat Willie torrents before Disney shuts the thread down
 
dorkimoe

dorkimoe

Member
Not that anyone cares about this character, but I am shocked this happened. Surprised Disney couldnt pay for a change. This wont happen with the new mickey
 
J

jason10mm

Gold Member
We are finally starting to get "real" IPs into the PD, though my understanding is that there are "groups" out there that have essentially squatted on some very popular IP (Sherlock Holmes, Conan, Tarzan, Zorro, etc) and will sue you if you use these names. My guess is Disney will just drown anyone infringing on Micky in so many lawsuits it would fund an new law school. Kinda ironic since virtually all of their best works are taken from public domain in some fashion.

We are just a few years away from the Hobbit, I think, and 10 from the early iterations of Bats and Supes. Gonna be wild.
 
Happosai

Happosai

Hold onto your panties
It's for the better it finally went public domain. Walt and Roy made a fortune out of a character they didn't properly develop. Videos on this give 'old Walt' a whole lot of credit and Ub Iwerks isn't mentioned at all. Don't believe his family ended up inheriting billions either.
 
Kadve

Kadve

Member
jason10mm said:
We are finally starting to get "real" IPs into the PD, though my understanding is that there are "groups" out there that have essentially squatted on some very popular IP (Sherlock Holmes, Conan, Tarzan, Zorro, etc)
Click to expand...
Sadly true. Though in most of these cases its a matter of "Trademark vs Copyright" and how the former is still valid.
 
Happosai

Happosai

Hold onto your panties
ManaByte said:
Get sued. They trademarked Steamboat Willie as the Walt Disney Animation Studios logo several years ago.


giphy.gif
Click to expand...
This news has shown me 3 things:

1. People don't know these early animations were Ub Iwerks cartoons he made for Disney and was never fully credited for.

2. Most do not understand public domain can be conditional.

3. Not knowing the difference between copyright and trademark.
 
C

CGNoire

Member
jason10mm said:
We are finally starting to get "real" IPs into the PD, though my understanding is that there are "groups" out there that have essentially squatted on some very popular IP (Sherlock Holmes, Conan, Tarzan, Zorro, etc) and will sue you if you use these names. My guess is Disney will just drown anyone infringing on Micky in so many lawsuits it would fund an new law school. Kinda ironic since virtually all of their best works are taken from public domain in some fashion.

We are just a few years away from the Hobbit, I think, and 10 from the early iterations of Bats and Supes. Gonna be wild.
Click to expand...
I think Conan in 2025 IIRC.
 
Kadve

Kadve

Member
MrTroubleMaker said:
lol disney with their multiple copyright and trademarks on the same thing. whoever is going to try to use it will get sued.
Click to expand...
Nah. Disney has a way more effective method when it comes to dealing with these kinds of things. Completely ignore it.

Ever heard of Escape from Tomorrow? Its an indie horror movie shot completely in secret at Disneyland/World and even got a theatrical release. But due to Disney denying it any publicity it means practically noone has heard of it.
Escape_From_Tomorrow_poster.jpg
 
Dirk Benedict

Dirk Benedict

Gold Member
Kadve said:
www.bbc.com

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

Disney's copyright on the earliest version of the cartoon characters expires in the US on 1 January.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com

It finally happened after years worth of lobbying by Disney in order to get the Copyright Term extended (Including the infamous "Mickey Mouse Protection Act" of 1998) but i guess they finally gave up.

1280px-Extended_Tom_Bell%27s_graph_showing_extension_of_U.S._copyright_term_over_time.svg.png

Note though that Disney makes it clear though that this "only" applies to the 1928 version of Mickey mouse (whatever that means) and that the character is still trademarked. Meaning you cant sell anything featuring him if it "has a chance of being mistaken for a Disney product".
Click to expand...

Mistaken as a Disney product?! Lmao! He's literally the first iteration of Mickey Mouse. They know what they are doing.
 
NeoIkaruGAF

NeoIkaruGAF

Gold Member
IntentionalPun said:
I’m very “who gives a shit” on this.

The character hasn’t been meaningful for decades and was never particularly interesting.
Click to expand...
Then you haven’t read the right comic books :messenger_winking:

America did a splendid job of completely dropping the ball on Mickey when Disney found its success in full feature films, but Europe has been busy creating some amazing Disney comics for the last 60 years.
 
Happosai

Happosai

Hold onto your panties
NeoIkaruGAF said:
Then you haven’t read the right comic books :messenger_winking:

America did a splendid job of completely dropping the ball on Mickey when Disney found its success in full feature films, but Europe has been busy creating some amazing Disney comics for the last 60 years.
Click to expand...
The ball was dropped longer ago than most Americans realize with Mickey Mouse. When the Ub Iwerks shorts & comics stopped and the last of the short b & w features were produced; they lost context of the character completely.

I think it was when Disney lost the rights to Laugh-o-Grams that he took a small team to work on Oswald (which they likewise lost rights to for nearly a century); then thought up 'Mickey'. Ub Iwerks was the guy behind the design and pen. They had a few comics go into the papers back then and surprised there's never been an official book documenting this (likely Disney trying to redact more of Iwerks' history). Walt Disney did write stories for some of these but it go to a point of competition with other studios (particularly Fleischer studios) to where you stopped seeing Ub's name on the title card of the early shorts. I mean, you can read his story but even after leaving and later rejoining; Disney saw the character as becoming the mascot for the company and wasn't going to share that with anyone.

Anyway, TL;DR...they could check out those comics or, given it's public domain...I don't mind taking Ub's original model sheets to make a family targeted comic. Funny thing too, had the character Mickey not become so famous...it would have likely been forgotten. As referenced, Disney did get the rights back to Ub & Walt's 'Oswald the Lucky Rabbit'. Despite having a couple shorts on Disney + and a few others floating around on old public domain DVDs; no one really seems to know what the character is. Some aren't aware it exists.

Oh...found this from a KC site but this was from Iwerk's model sheet. I don't think Disney himself ever released his drawing publicly or if Ub just redrew it from the original.
GHSligs.jpg
 
Alebrije

Alebrije

Member
Here in México the most known use of Mikey 1.0 is on Tren Maya (Maya Train)..

mickeymouse.jpg


For promotion.
 
Last edited:
B

Blade2.0

Member
I blame the cycle of reboots on this, actually. 40 years it should have been in the public domain, anyone could have been using these characters, Superman, Spiderman, etc. but instead the corporations get to hold onto them with an iron grip. No need to think up better characters, we'll just reuse the ones we've got in perpetuity. I'm very glad that they didn't try to extend it even further, maybe now that they can't rest on their laurels for 40 more years, they'll start thinking of new IPs.
 
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