It is a sad testament to the fallibility of our legislative process that Mickey Mouse is not in the public domain. For those US Citizens that weren’t told you would be losing your original constitutional rights; Disney through the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act made it so, among other things, Mickey won’t enter the public domain till after 2019ce.
shareEh. I'll still be around then.
I wouldn't consider being able to legally publish nudey pics of Mickey Mouse a Constitutional right. Even though Disney hasn't done much with Mickey lately, I'd rather he be safe with them than at the helm of people wanting to mooch off of his name. That's all becoming public domain would do.
http://www.JimsEats.com
Of course, being that Steamboat Willie was stolen from Buster Keaton's Steamboat Bill, Jr.(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0019421/), Disney really shouldn't have been able to mooch off of Buster Keaton's name.
shareStolen is a very strong word. Inspired seems more correct to me.
shareI'm glad it really isn't in the public domain because we'll see lame rip-offs of Mickey Mouse. Some will do it right nut for the most part I think there will be too much crap. I'm sure some of those lame animation companies that release rip-off movies on video the same time Disney movies are released would destroy Mickey.
shareWell, it's not like we don't see lame rip-offs of Calvin and Hobbes without them being in the public domain...
shareMickey Mouse can be (and is) a trademark owned by Disney. People cannot replicate his likeness or name. However, the movie itself is copyrighted, and not available for replication or use as the basis of other works.
Every time this movie comes to the end of its copyright term, Congress extends the maximum term. It's like magic.
Imagine if Shakespeare's works were still under copyright-- imagine which great movies and books would not have been created. Imagine if stories by The Brothers Grimm were still under copyright-- imagine which Disney films could not have been created. So many fantastic movies based on books would not have been made were the books not in the public domain.
Stories in the public domain are the source of countless works of art and commerce that maintains progress in the arts and sciences... life would be dull if copyright was a perpetual right.
Having this movie become part of the public domain would not jeopardize Disney's right to the Mickey Mouse character, which is a trademark.
Does anyone know where a list of titles of movies currently in the public domain is?
T.H.
www.archive.org
you should be able to find all kinds of public domain media.
Technically speaking, Mickey should be in the public domain, but I think it would stink if he was because then everyone could purchase material from "Steamboat Willie" or other films of the era and alter them in ways that butcher the original context.
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Even once this goes into Public Domain Disney still has complete rights to the character. As has been explained above Mickey Mouse is a trademark. The difference being Disney has control over it as long as they continue to use it.
And incidentally, for the record, this wasn't the first Mickey Mouse cartoon anyway, that would be, I belive, Plane Crazy. That is the one you should be wanting to go into Public Domain if it would actually make a difference (Which it doesn't)
Just to add on to your latter paragraph, "SteamBoat Willie" was actually the third Mickey Mouse cartoon. The first was "Plane Crazy" and the second was "Gallopin' Gaucho." The reason "Steamboat" is significant is the fact that it is the first sound cartoon.
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