![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Mickey-Mouse-Steamboat-Willie.jpg?resize=800%2C600&ssl=1\")
This is a company that once forced a Florida daycare center to remove an unauthorized Minnie Mouse mural. In 2006, Disney told a stonemason that carving Winnie the Pooh into a child\u2019s gravestone would violate its copyright. The company pushed so hard for an extension of copyright protections in 1998 that the result was derisively nicknamed the\u00a0Mickey Mouse Protection Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the first time, however, one of Disney\u2019s marquee characters \u2014 Mickey himself \u2014 is set to enter the public domain. \u201cSteamboat Willie,\u201d the 1928 short film that introduced Mickey to the world, will lose copyright protection in the United States and a few other countries at the end of next year, prompting fans, copyright experts, and potential Mickey grabbers to wonder: How is the notoriously litigious Disney going to respond?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m seeing in Reddit forums and on Twitter where people \u2014 creative types \u2014 are getting excited about the possibilities, that somehow it\u2019s going to be open season on Mickey,\u201d said Aaron J. Moss<\/a>, a partner at Greenberg Glusker in Los Angeles who specializes in copyright and trademark law. \u201cBut that is a misunderstanding of what is happening with the copyright.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The matter is more complicated than it appears, and those who try to capitalize on the expiring \u201cSteamboat Willie\u201d copyright could easily end up in a legal mousetrap. \u201cThe question is where Disney tries to draw the line on enforcement,\u201d Mr. Moss said, \u201cand if courts get involved to draw that line judicially.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Only one copyright is expiring. It covers the original version of Mickey Mouse as seen in \u201cSteamboat Willie,\u201d an eight-minute short with little plot. This nonspeaking Mickey has a rat-like nose, rudimentary eyes (no pupils), and a long tail. He can be naughty. In one \u201cSteamboat Willie\u201d scene, he torments a cat. In another, he uses a terrified goose as a trombone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Later versions of the character remain protected by copyrights, including the sweeter, rounder Mickey with red shorts and white gloves most familiar to audiences today. They will enter the public domain at different points over the coming decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDisney has regularly modernized the character, not necessarily as a program of copyright management, at least initially, but to keep up with the times,\u201d said Jane C. Ginsburg<\/a>, an authority on intellectual property law who teaches at Columbia University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The expiration of the \u201cSteamboat Willie\u201d copyright means that the black-and-white short can be shown without Disney\u2019s permission and even resold by third parties. (There may not be much sales value left, however. Disney posted it for free<\/a> on YouTube years ago.) It also means that anyone can make use of the film and the original Mickey to further expression \u2014 to create new stories and artwork.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Winnie the Pooh, another Disney property, offers a window into what could happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This year, the 1926 children\u2019s book \u201cWinnie-the-Pooh,\u201d by A.A. Milne, came into the public domain. An upstart filmmaker has since made a low-budget, live-action slasher film called \u201cWinnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey<\/a>,\u201d in which the pudgy yellow bear turns feral. In one scene, Pooh and his friend Piglet use chloroform to incapacitate a bikini-clad woman in a hot tub and then drive a car over her head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Disney has no copyright recourse, as long as the filmmaker adheres to the 1926 material and does not use any elements that came later. (Pooh\u2019s recognizable red shirt, for instance, was added in 1930.) Fathom Events<\/a> will give \u201cWinnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey,\u201d directed by Rhys Waterfield, a one-day theatrical release in the United States on Feb. 15.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here is where it gets tricky: Disney also holds trademarks on its characters, including the \u201cSteamboat Willie\u201d version of Mickey Mouse, and trademarks never expire as long as companies keep submitting the proper paperwork. A copyright covers a specific creation (unauthorized copying), but trademarks are designed to protect against consumer confusion \u2014 to provide consumers assurance about the source and quality of a creation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Boiled down, any public domain use of the original Mickey cannot be perceived as coming from Disney, Ms. Ginsburg explained. This protection is strong, she added, because the character, even in his early form, has such close association with the company. People glance at those ears and smile and \u201cautomatically associate it with Disney,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2007, Walt Disney Animation Studios redesigned its logo to incorporate the \u201cSteamboat Willie\u201d mouse. It has appeared before every movie the unit has released since, including \u201cFrozen\u201d and \u201cEncanto,\u201d deepening the old character\u2019s association with the company. (The logo is also protected by a trademark.) In addition, Disney sells \u201cSteamboat Willie\u201d merchandise<\/a>, including socks, backpacks, mugs, stickers, shirts and collectibles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWinnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey\u201d most likely does not run afoul of Disney\u2019s trademarks because \u201cno reasonable person would ever believe that Disney would authorize that kind of story,\u201d Mr. Moss said. Pooh\u2019s face is also slightly distorted in the film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEver since Mickey Mouse\u2019s first appearance in the 1928 short film \u2018Steamboat Willie,\u2019 people have associated the character with Disney\u2019s stories, experiences and authentic products,\u201d Disney said in a statement. \u201cThat will not change when the copyright in the \u2018Steamboat Willie\u2019 film expires.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n It added, \u201cWe will, of course, continue to protect our rights in the more modern versions of Mickey Mouse and other works that remain subject to copyright, and we will work to safeguard against consumer confusion caused by unauthorized uses of Mickey and our other iconic characters.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Disney and other entertainment companies successfully lobbied to have copyright protections extended in the late 1990s.Credit…Disney<\/p>\n\n\n\n The topic of Mickey Mouse and copyright has loomed in the public consciousness since the late 1990s, when Disney and other entertainment companies \u2014 and, notably, the estates of composers like George Gershwin \u2014 successfully lobbied Congress to extend copyright protections. In many ways, Mickey has become the ultimate symbol of intellectual property, a character more well known than even Santa Claus, market researchers have said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 1998 copyright extension prompted a court fight, with detractors arguing that Congress disregarded the Constitution, which holds that copyright protection be given for a \u201climited\u201d time. \u201cFree the Mouse\u201d bumper stickers began appearing, according to Paul Goldstein, a professor at Stanford Law School and the author of a five-volume treatise on U.S. copyright law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDisney was no more active in pushing for the extension than anyone else, but they made for a convenient villain,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2003, the Supreme Court ruled 7 to 2 to uphold what Congress had done. But the justices did so while holding their nose. \u201cWe are not at liberty to second-guess congressional determinations and policy judgments of this order, however debatable or arguably unwise they may be,\u201d Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote in the majority opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Disney lawyers and lobbyists likely determined long ago that pressing Congress for another extension would fail. \u201cThat last one is held in such bad, bad odor,\u201d Mr. Goldstein said. \u201cI don\u2019t think there was any option to try and extend further.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n That means early versions of Popeye, King Kong, Donald Duck, Flash Gordon, Porky Pig and Superman will enter the public domain at various points over the next decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If there is anything that Disney takes more seriously than intellectual property, it is public image. In 2020, a Disney affiliate charged an elementary school $250 for showing \u201cThe Lion King\u201d without permission at a P.T.A. fund-raiser. The media storm that followed was so intense that Robert A. Iger, Disney\u2019s chief executive, apologized and said he would make a personal donation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the last decade, Disney has also had to contend with the rise of \u201ccreator culture,\u201d Mr. Moss noted. Digital technology has allowed creativity and expression to flourish online, with YouTube vloggers, Instagram influencers, TikTokers and Twitter rabble-rousers incorporating intellectual property into new works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe will, of course, continue to protect our rights in the more modern versions of Mickey Mouse and other works that remain subject to copyright,\u201d Disney said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n That could pose a challenge for Disney when \u201cSteamboat Willie\u201d comes into the public domain. \u201cThey won\u2019t be able to go after everyone,\u201d Mr. Moss said. \u201cBattle lines will have to be drawn.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ms. Ginsburg said she was watching closely to see if Disney and other entertainment companies tried to apply trademark law as a substitute for or extension of copyright \u2014 as she put it, \u201capply a separate protection to get to the same place.\u201d In a Supreme Court intellectual property case from 2003 involving 20th Century Fox, Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the court, warned of using trademarks to generate \u201ca species of mutant copyright law<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is a looming area,\u201d Ms. Ginsburg said. \u201cWe\u2019re on the cusp of a time when copyrights in a range of visual works will expire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The version of the iconic character from \u201cSteamboat Willie\u201d will enter the public domain in 2024. But those trying to take advantage could end up in a legal mousetrap. 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