In just a few short days, an early version of Disney’s most iconic character will join the public domain for the first time.
For nearly a century, the image of Mickey Mouse has been married to the Walt Disney Company brand, but on January 1, 2024, Disney’s copyright of “Steamboat Willie,” Walt Disney’s first short film featuring Mickey Mouse, will expire.
That means that one of the company’s earliest iterations of its beloved rodent will become available for public use.
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“Steamboat Willie” premiered in 1928, helping launch Mickey Mouse and Walt Disney into the stratosphere. Since US copyright law, which was last updated by Congress in 1998, allows copyright to be held for 95 years, Disney’s sole claim to the character is about to end.
From the article, there’s a difference between copyright and trademark protection, so this is how Steamboat Willie will be available for public use:
Due to the company’s trademark on later iterations of Mickey Mouse, you won’t see Mickey serving as another company’s mascot either, Lee said
“Just like the Nike Swoosh and Tiffany Blue, Disney owns Mickey,” Lee said. “It cannot be used in that recognizable way for advertising.”
Despite the copyright expiration, adopting Disney’s famous mouse may prove “a tricky thing to do,” Lee said. “If they feel that you’re diluting their brand, if they feel like you’re tarnishing their brand, that’s problematic and they’re going to sue you.”
However, some exceptions exist to Disney’s tight grip on its affable mouse. Even the more modern version of Mickey Mouse can be shown for educational purposes, satire or parody, Lee said.
It’s why they quit fighting to get copyright law changed, they won what they wanted
Been saying this for years. Now that we have hours to go, maybe people will finally believe there’s no hidden plan to extend copyright yet again.
When my kid did a play in middle school “The Little Mermaid” either there was an approved videographer or none were allowed, either way parents were told if they took cell phone footage the school would be sued.
I wonder if that kind of thing should fall under educational purposes?
From the American Association of Community Theatre:
Is it legal to videotape a performance of a play or musical protected under copyright? In almost all cases, the answer is no.
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That’s because the only authority that authors generally give publisher/agents is to license performance rights. (In the case of musicals these are known as “grand rights,” because they include book, music, and lyrics.)
https://aact.org/sites/default/files/Resource Library/Videotaping.pdf
Can’t find the video by lawful masses explaining the specific components but if I recall correctly copyright is a bundle of rights.
You have and can sell, give or license them together or separately.
- The right to reproduce/copy
- The right to perform
- The right to transmit
- The right to create derivatives.
So, outside fair use which isn’t as slam dunk as people think and you still have to fight in court to prove you had a right at your own expense, copyright holders can give some rights but not others. And unless explicitly stated the rights can be assigned to you but you can’t grant them to others. E.g. the schools allowed to perform it, but can’t give rights to parents to record it.
You can make as many copies of my poem you want. But you can’t change the wording. (Limited reproduction allowed, derivatives not)
You print my poem in your book and change the wording but it can’t be streamed, projected, performed. (Reproduction, derivatives allowed, performance not)
You can perform my music on a stage with lyrics but you can’t let them be photocopied/streamed. (Performance allowed, reproduction not)
It all makes sense when the copyrights are for a short time. They’re meant to be a creative monopoly incentivizing people putting stuff out there and then it being part of the public domain after a time.
The Little Mermaid isn’t copyrighted though…
Unless they pull Hans Christian Anderson out of his grave, I’m not sure they would have much standing to sue. The only way I could see a lawsuit is if they had exact imagery from the movie.
Maybe it wasn’t the little mermaid? Or they were using the names. It was awhile ago, what stuck with me is we weren’t allowed to record the performance for that reason. Maybe I’d remember the play better if I had a video of it lol.
Haha
It could also very possibly be an overzealous administration who didn’t want to deal with any possible issues. They maybe knew of the Disney version but we’re not aware that most of Disney’s biggest movies are from pre-copyright stories.
The Walt Disney Company is not ready for the amount of Steamboat Love ❤️🛳️❤️🛳️❤️ that the Rule34 folks will throw at them. Hot Steampipe Action is on the menu, folks.
You think copywrite has ever stopped rule 34 artists?
I can’t wait to start making my own Steamboat Willie cartoons! The Mouse may sue me for use of the name “Mickey” or some other bastardization of the copyright law, but it’s the principle of the thing!
Make it educational, like how to perform a tracheostomy with a ballpoint pen.
They would probably get you under trademark law. They use a clip of Steamboat Willie as their intro logo for things.
