Copyright news for 2023:
On January 1, 2023, copyrighted works from 1927 will enter the US public domain, including books from Hemingway, Woolf, and Agatha Christie; movies like Metropolis, Wings, and The Jazz Singer; and music by Irving Berlin & Louis Armstrong. https://t.co/3BHllesUlL
— kottke.org (@kottke) December 21, 2022
Only one year until Mickey Mouse is in the public domain.
Disney will, once again, get the law changed to extend copyright duration.
Don't worry, Disney will get a bill passed to keep that from happening.
As I understand it, only the 1927 version will be in the public domain. The mouse changed quite a bit within a few years. The early versions would be mostly unrecognizable to most people today.
If you watch the first Mickey Mouse cartoon, Plane Crazy, you will see Mickey acting in a manner that might get him in a jail cell with Harvey Weinstein.
This sort of dispute gets really complicated, and unfortunately seems to depend on the judge you draw as much as your lawyer or the law or facts.
There was one a while back over Sherlock Holmes. The company set up to restrict use of Holmes-related IP sued over a book claiming to use only expired Holmes-related IP, not that from later Holmes novels that were still under copyright.
They lost on appeal.
So it isn't cut-and-dried, but the risk of ending up in court still means that non-deep-pocketed creatives will be running large risks rubbing up against that issue.
Sorry for the double-post, meant to link to more detail on the Holmes case:
https://www.herrick.com/publications/case-solved-sir-arthur-conan-doyles-estate-loses-copyright-dispute-over-sherlock-holmes/
Interesting, but in my world I would avoid a lawsuit with Disney, Inc.
I remember a number of years ago there was a VCR repair shop owned by a guy named Mac(something) who playfully named his business McVideo. He got a letter from McDonalds threatening to sue. He offered to change the name of the shop to Mac’s Video but they refused. He had to take any version of Mc or face a lawsuit. So he changed the name to something else. I suppose he would have won a lawsuit, but it just wasn’t worth the expense.
Mac would have been sued for a trademark violation, which is an entirely different beast than copyright.
Trademarks are granted for an entirely different reason than copyrights, have different requirements and limits, and are covered under different rules.
I do completely understand the instinct to avoid meeting Disney's lawyers in a dark
alleycourtroom. They don't mess around.Apparently there could be trademark issues related to the mouse too. This article discusses the issue and refers to the Sherlock Holmes lawsuit also:
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/01/a-whole-years-worth-of-works-just-fell-into-the-public-domain/
Mickey and the various Disney characters are pretty firmly identified with Disney, but I wonder how thing will be for Superman and Batman. I doubt there could be trademark issues with them.
No, Disney will not get their extension this time. Some Guy on the internet said so.
But seriously, I don't think it will, they don't have the votes for it anymore.
The US copyright on Metropolis lapsed in 1953 but was restored in 1996. That explains my shoddy VHS copy.
This is why Disney has been remaking their old movies in a slightly different format. That way their films will be copyright protected all over again.
Ever the optimist…
Let us not forget to thank Sonny Bono for our restrictive US copyright laws.
Mickey is pretty thoroughly protected as a brand and trademark, which never lapse. Individual works may fall into the public domain, but Mickey himself will remain, now and forever, under the sole control of Disney.