Disney's Mickey Mouse enter public domain
Disney's Mickey Mouse enter public domain
Disney's copyright on the earliest version of the cartoon characters expires in the US on 1 January.
There is a discussion on Hacker News, but feel free to comment here as well.
how ever will they remain profitable
'Bout damn time. When Steamboat Willie was made, the term of copyright was 28 years. Steamboat Willie should have entered the public domain in 1955.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Steamboat Willie, a 1928 short film featuring early non-speaking versions of Mickey and Minnie, is widely seen as the moment that transformed Disney's fortunes and made cinema history.
They include Charlie Chaplin's silent romantic comedy The Circus; English author AA Milne's book The House at Pooh Corner, which introduced the character Tigger; Virginia Woolf's Orlando; and DH Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover.
Jennifer Jenkins, director of the Duke Centre for the Study of the Public Domain, told the BBC it was a "deeply symbolic and long awaited" milestone.
Jenkins said the moment was particularly significant because of Disney's "perceived role" in the extension of the copyright term, which prevented its properties from going into the public domain for so long.
Jack Kendall, a 32-year-old digital content creator from Warwickshire who runs a YouTube channel for Disney news explainers, believes someone may try to give Mickey and Minnie the horror movie treatment.
Kendall, who has more than 168,000 subscribers to his DSNY Newscast channel, believes Disney would want to avoid any further legal fights given that the firm has become "a political lightning rod in pop culture".
The original article contains 783 words, the summary contains 185 words. Saved 76%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Also note, this is only for the steamboat willy version, the modern day red pants Mickey is still under copyright