https://publicdomainreview.org/blog/2024/01/public-domain-day-2024/
"For anyone vaguely tuned in to the machinations of copyright law, this Public
Domain Day (the day at the start of each year on which works enter the public
domain) is an extra special one, for it
finally sees the appearance of a
certain mouse. That's right... Mickey is free! At least the particular
iteration of Mickey that first graced our screens in Disney's 1928 film
Steamboat Willie. And, at least in the United States, which sees works from
1928 enter the public domain today.
To appreciate the monumental nature of this one needs to understand a little
about Disney Corporation's relationship to, and perverse effect on, copyright
law in the United States — and so how symbolic Mickey has become in the fight
to preserve the public domain. The story starts (or at least takes a
significant turn) in 1998 with the passing of the Copyright Term Extension Act,
which basically did what it says on the tin: extended copyrights for many
thousands of works which otherwise would have entered the US public domain,
including
Steamboat Willie (and also
Plane Crazy). While Disney wasn’t the
only lobbyist involved, it was certainly one of the most prominent and its
involvement earned the legislation the derisory moniker of “The Mickey Mouse
Protection Act”.
The effect of this Act (and previous extending Acts, also involving Disney) has
been devastating to the enlargement of the US public domain, locking up an
enormous number of works for many decades, but… all things must pass, and so
too the copyright on
Steamboat Willie. So what does this mean? In a simple
sense it means one can use the film as one wishes (in the US at least). And
this relates also to the characters of Mickey and Minnie which star in the
film, but with two important caveats: i) it’s only these particular versions of
Minnie and Mickey (e.g. long arms, gloveless), later iterations are still under
copyright; and ii) Disney still has the trademark, so you can’t reuse in a way
which implies an affiliation with the company. For a more in-depth look at the
issues involved here (including why aspects of the later Mickey iterations
might also be fine to reuse), we highly recommend this great post by Jennifer
Jenkins from the Center for the Study of the Public Domain and also this
Twitter thread by Cory Doctorow."
https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/mickey/
Via Esther Schindler.
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
