Mickey Mouse will soon belong to you and me, with a few caveats

MICKEY will soon belong to you and me.

With several asterisks, caveats and warnings, Mickey Mouse in his earliest form will be the leader of the group of characters, movies and books that will enter the public domain as the year 2024 arrives.

In a moment that many close observers thought would never come, at least one version of the quintessential piece of intellectual property and perhaps the most iconic character in American pop culture will be free of Disney copyrights in its first on-screen release. , the short from 1928. Willie the steamboatfeaturing Mickey and Minnie Mouse, will be available for public use.

“That’s it. This is Mickey Mouse. This is exciting because it’s symbolic,” said Jennifer Jenkins, a law professor and director of Duke’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain, who writes an annual Jan. 1 column for the “Public Domain Day.” “I feel like a steamship pipe, like blowing out smoke. It’s so exciting.”

US law allows copyrights to remain in place for 95 years after Congress extended them several times during Mickey’s lifetime.

“It’s sometimes derisively known as the Mickey Mouse Protection Act,” Jenkins said. “That’s oversimplified because it wasn’t just Disney that was pushing to extend the deadline. “It was a whole group of copyright holders whose works would soon enter the public domain who benefited greatly from the 20 years of additional protection.”

“From Mickey Mouse’s first appearance in the 1928 short film Willie the steamboat, people have associated the character with authentic Disney stories, experiences and products,” a Disney spokesperson said in a statement to the Associated Press. “That won’t change when copyright in the Willie the steamboat The movie expires.”

Current artists and creators will be able to use Mickey, but with great limitations. Only the most mischievous, rat-like, non-speaking captain of the ship Willie the steamboat that has been made public.

“More modern versions of Mickey will not be affected by the expiration of Steamboat Willie’s copyright, and Mickey will continue to play a prominent role as a global ambassador for the Walt Disney Company in our storytelling, theme park attractions and products.” Disney said in a statement. saying.

However, not every trait or personality trait a character displays is necessarily protected by copyright, and courts could be busy in the coming years determining what is on and off Disney property.

“Of course, we will continue to protect our rights in more modern versions of Mickey Mouse and other works that remain subject to copyright,” the company said.

Disney still strongly and separately owns a trademark of Mickey as a corporate mascot and brand identifier, and the law prohibits using the character in a deceptive manner to trick consumers into thinking a product comes from the original creator. Anyone starting a movie company or theme park won’t be able to make mouse ears their logo.

Disney’s statement says it will “work to safeguard against consumer confusion caused by unauthorized uses of Mickey and our other iconic characters.”

Willie the steamboat, directed by Walt Disney and his partner Ub Iwerks and one of the first cartoons to have sound synchronized with its images, was actually the third cartoon starring Mickey and Minnie, the men, but the first to be released. It features a more menacing Mickey captaining a ship and making musical instruments out of other animals.

In it, and in a clip used in the introduction to Disney animated films in recent years, Mickey whistles the 1910 tune “Steamboat Bill.” The song inspired the title of the Buster Keaton film. The Bill Jr. Steamboatreleased just a few months earlier Willie the steamboat, which in turn may have inspired the title of the Disney short. The copyright was not renewed on Keaton’s film and it has been in the public domain since 1956.

Another famous animal companion, Tigger, will join his friend Winnie the Pooh in the public domain as the book in which the bouncing tiger first appeared. Pooh’s House on Cornerturns 96 years old. Pooh, probably the most famous previous character to become public property, assumed that status two years ago when AA Milne’s original film Winnie the Pooh entered the public domain, leading to some truly novel uses, including this year’s horror film. Winnie The Pooh: blood and honey.

Young Mickey could get the same treatment.

“Now, the public is going to set the terms,” said Cory Doctorow, an author and activist who advocates for broader public ownership of works.

January 1, 2024 has long been marked on the calendars of public domain observers, but some say it serves to show how long it takes for American works to become public, and many properties with less pedigree than Winnie or Minnie can disappear or be forgotten with their murky copyrights.

“The fact that there are works that are still recognizable and endure after 95 years is frankly remarkable,” Doctorow said. “And it makes you think about the things we must have lost that would still be relevant.”

Other properties that enter the American public domain are the Charlie Chaplin film Circusnovel by Virginia Woolf Orlando and the musical work of Bertolt Brecht The Threepenny Opera.

The current copyright term passed in 1998 brought the United States closer to the European Union, so Congress is unlikely to extend it now. There are now also powerful companies, including Amazon with its fanfiction publishing arm and Google with its book project, that in some cases advocate for the public domain.

“There’s actually more pushback now than there was twenty years ago when the Mickey Mouse law was passed,” said Paul Heald, a professor at the University of Illinois College of Law who specializes in copyright and international intellectual property law. .

In some cases, the United States goes far beyond Europe and maintains copyrights on works that are already public in their home country, although international agreements would allow the United States to adopt shorter terms from other nations on works produced there. .

George Orwell’s books, for example, including Farm and 1984both published in the 1940s, they are now in the public domain in their native Britain.

“Those works will not enter the public domain in the United States for another 25 years,” Heald said. “It would literally be free for Congress to pass a law that said, ‘we now adopt the shortest term rule,’ which would throw a lot of works into the public domain here.”