If Disney doesn't keep illegally extending the copyright dates, continuing to ruin the way copyrights are supposed to actually work, I will legitimately be surprised.
Even if they wanted, there is not much time left to change anything at this point
Not with that attitude...
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Mickey Mouse is no longer as relevant in Disney’s dominance anymore. They got bigger cash cows to milk.
Sure, but it is still the icon and mascot of disney.
That's why it's trademarked. Unlike a copyright, trademarks can last forever.
(sigh) Just a little bit longer and I'll finally be able to release my Steamboat Willy tentacle hentai comic.
Even with the character in Public Domain, I doubt Disney would be particularly happy with anyone using it.
They can send cease and desist letter left and right, claiming that "the use of the mouse is fine, but the elements X, Y and Z were introduced in a later work of ours that's still protected", even if it's a plain lie.
Trying to take Disney to court is suicide.
The have enough money to hire half the lawyers in the world and make them come up with a lawsuit even if there's no basis for one. They can stretch the lawsuit process to last years, and yet the fees would be but a fraction of a fraction of a percent in their yearly spending. Almost any defendant, meanwhile, would be financially ruined by it, even if they end up winning.
claiming that "the use of the mouse is fine, but the elements X, Y and Z were introduced in a later work of ours that's still protected", even if it's a plain lie.
Isn't that exactly what the law says? A popular example with that problem is Sherlock.
Donald Duck’s copyright expires in 2029 and we’ll finally be able to walk around pantsless in a sailor hat/shirt without being harassed by Walt Disney’s widow.
EXPECT legislative-shenanigans, people...
EITHER they'll extend copyright again,
XOR they'll just "conveniently" have copyright apply in court, even-though it doesn't apply on-paper.
Never believe a career-criminal, or Dark Triad entity, has changed, unless you see robust, consistent, years-long, actual, objective proof of that change having-happened.
Extraordinary-claims require extraordinary backing/evidence.
_ /\ _
They don't have to do any of those. They own most of the content pipe so anyone who wants to do their own spin on Mickey is going to be inherently limited on their publishing reach.
Plus with all the acquisitions they've made, the copyright to Mickey and other legacy characters is worth a much smaller portion of their empire.
And they still own the TM.
Basically I'm regurgitating a rather good video recently published by Corridor Crew so go here for more facts and fewer hacks: https://youtu.be/u2dIvUAd5QE?si=IK5wOEpSDOPyIwJz
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.
. Later forms of the mouse, including the iconic white-gloved version with red shorts, will still be protected by copyright, according to The New York Times.
WTF is this shitty loophole? "Well, we changed his clothes, that's a whole new different character!" This makes no sense. Copyright should be abolished.
I disagree. That would just result in corporations like Disney ripping off independent artists.
But limit it to the artist's life time or perhaps 25 years.
IRC drug patents last only 20 years, and those often cost a lot of money to develop, research and bring to market.
That would just result in corporations like Disney ripping off independent artists.
Fucking thank you.
The whole "copyrights should be abolished" trope is regurgitated by people who have clearly never created anything in their life. For artists, musicians, and other content creators, copyright is vital to our lives.
If you think Disney is powerful now, imagine what Disney would be like if no other creators had any legal protection at all.
The problem is that copyright law is never used by the small artists to protect their work, it's only used by big corporations to put down the small artists, fuck with each other and find loop holes to abuse of it.
There's what it should be for and what it's actually used for.
You're approaching a relevant part (that big corporations have an overwhelming power advantage in this "negotiation"), but "small artists never use copyright law" is just wrong:
Without copyright law they couldn't even sell their content (or more accurately: they could sell it, but the big corp could simply copy it and sell it better/cheaper due to the economics of scale).
So without copyright the smaller artists would be even more boned than they are right now.
There should be real punishments for companies that do stuff like issue fraudulent DMCA takedowns.
IMO copyright as a concept makes sense, but it's duration should be significantly shortened. In todays short-lived world most works lose the majority of their financial value after a few years (let's say ~10) anyways. So to allow artists to benefit from their creations while still allowing remixing or reasonably recent content I'd say some sane compromise is necessary.
Either that or massively expand (and codify) what qualifies as fair use: let anyone reinterpret anything, but don't allow verbatim copying.
Public domain can get weird. The works of Mozart are obviously public domain. But if I record myself performing some of them, that recording is copyrighted. It doesn't stop you from doing the same, which would also be copyrighted. Now let's say I add a few of my own touches to my performance- which would be a derivative work. You cannot copy those in your own performance without my permission. In effect, it's the changes themselves that are copyrighted.
Once I've made my recording, you can face an uphill battle to prove that you either didn't know about mine, or that it was so obvious that it wasn't creative.
All of this ignores trademark law, which is related but distinct.
I guarantee that on January 1st there will be a ton of Mickey videos on the internet and it will be glorious
And I guarantee that the majority of it will simply copy todays Mickey Mouse as opposed to the one in steamboat Willie.
But that version isn't entering the public domain any time soon.
I'm shocked no legislation has been created to increase copyright even longer, but I guess there's still time. Maybe with non-disney mickey mouse works out there, their lawyers will argue that it is damaging and thus a new law should be passed retroactively.
Over Walt’s cold dead body.
…
uhhhhh… wait, hang on I didn’t mean that
I didn't see here the obvious answer: never.
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