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- cross-posted to:
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This iconic mouse is weeks away fromn being in the public domain Jan. 1, 2024, is the day when ‘Steamboat Willie’ enters the public domain
This iconic mouse is weeks away fromn being in the public domain Jan. 1, 2024, is the day when ‘Steamboat Willie’ enters the public domain
I recall an article on Ars Technica, I think from 2017?, talking about how Disney and other big corpos weren’t moving pieces to give copyright law yet another push into infinity. The main reasoning was that, unlike the previous times it did (the last one being early 90s), the resistance would be real and vocal, with a possible side effect being a lawmaker reaching the conclusion that “no piece of shit deserves or needs this much time protected by copyright”, starting to work in reducing copyright protection
Keep in mind, folks, that we’ll only have public access to Mickey and Minnie as they’re displayed on Steamboat Willie. Any other versions are still no-go.
For now… That’s just because he was the first iteration of the character. The others will also age into it as time goes on.
Isn’t this why they pivoted to using Steamboat Willie in their pre-roll - to pull it under trademark as copyright expires?
Seems it’ll still be illegal, just for different reasons.
I’m not sure, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they manage to trademark the character, since the mouse is very iconic
I’d say you can count on it.