Mickey Mouse has left the house: Steamboat Willie enters the public domain – The Verge

The internet copyright machine wasn’t made for Mickey Mouse

2024-01-05T14:46:00-05:00

Earlier this week, Disney's film Steamboat Willie entered the US public domain after nearly a century - and so did its star Mickey Mouse. It was a turning point for one of the 20th century's most iconic and rigorously protected pieces of intellectual property, and it was celebrated by an explosion of irreverent Mickey reinterpretations, including at least two film trailers, a horror game, a custom AI model, and a slew of predictably tasteless memes. The original cartoon was also uploaded in full on platforms like YouTube, letting anyone watch it for free.

The change has also been marked by a confusing string of moderation decisions. In the …

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Welcome to the public domain, Mickey Mouse

2024-01-01T07:00:00-05:00

Just be careful not to let major elements from later designs slip in. | Disney

It's finally happened: after nearly a century, Mickey Mouse has slipped off Disney's copyright leash. The first versions of the iconic cartoon character, seen in Steamboat Willie and a silent version of Plane Crazy, enter the public domain in the US on January 1st, 2024. (An early version of Minnie Mouse is also fortunately included.) There's still a complicated mess of protections around Mickey, but today is a moment public domain advocates have awaited for decades - and there are plenty of other exciting new entries as well.

Duke Law School's Center for the Study of the Public Domain, as usual, has a roundup of prominent works whose copyr …

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