{"id":40179,"date":"2023-12-17T12:20:57","date_gmt":"2023-12-17T17:20:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=40179"},"modified":"2023-12-17T12:21:01","modified_gmt":"2023-12-17T17:21:01","slug":"disney-makes-a-statement-about-mickey-mouse-and-steamboat-willie-finally-entering-public-domain-in-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2023\/12\/17\/disney-makes-a-statement-about-mickey-mouse-and-steamboat-willie-finally-entering-public-domain-in-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Disney Makes a Statement About Mickey Mouse and \u2018Steamboat Willie\u2019 Finally Entering Public Domain in 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On January 1, 2024, \u201cSteamboat Willie,\u201d and consequently the characters of Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse, will enter the public domain. In the past, Disney pushed for extended copyright laws to keep Mickey under their control, but they have finally given up and are letting the mice \u2014 at least as they first appeared \u2014 free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A Disney spokesperson said in a statement to The Associated Press<\/a>, \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. That will not change when the copyright in the Steamboat Willie film expires.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The spokesperson continued, \u201cMore modern versions of Mickey will remain unaffected by the expiration of the Steamboat Willie copyright, and Mickey will continue to play a leading role as a global ambassador for the Walt Disney Company in our storytelling, theme park attractions, and merchandise.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cWe will, of course,\u201d they added, \u201ccontinue to protect our rights in the more modern versions of Mickey Mouse and other works that remain subject to copyright.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mickey\u2019s design and personality have evolved over the years, and he has appeared in hundreds of different outfits in media and at Disney Parks. For now, only Mickey and Minnie as they appeared in \u201cSteamboat Willie,\u201d as well as \u201cThe Gallopin\u2019 Gaucho,\u201d (both released in late 1928) are entering the public domain. So anyone hoping to make their own Mickey Mouse movie wouldn\u2019t be able to put him in his \u201cSorcerer\u2019s Apprentice\u201d garb from \u201cFantasia,\u201d for example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPlane Crazy,\u201d the first Mickey film produced, was released after \u201cSteamboat Willie\u201d and \u201cThe Gallopin\u2019 Gaucho,\u201d in 1929, so remains under copyright until 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disney also still holds a trademark for Mickey as a symbol of their brand, meaning no other companies can start using a Mickey head logo although they could make Mickey-related media. As long as a trademark is still in use, it never expires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Disney spokesperson said the company \u201cwill work to safeguard against consumer confusion caused by unauthorized uses of Mickey and our other iconic characters.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The copyright law keeping Mickey out of the public domain is sometimes called the Mickey Mouse Protection Act, but other companies were also pushing for extended copyright alongside Disney. The law currently allows copyright to be held for 95 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tigger from the original \u201cWinnie the Pooh\u201d novels will also enter the public domain in 2024 as he was first introduced in the second \u201cWinnie the Pooh\u201d book, \u201cThe House at Pooh Corner,\u201d in 1928. After the other characters entered public domain, the infamous horror film \u201cWinnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey\u201d was released early this year. The Disney versions of \u201cWinnie the Pooh\u201d characters remain protected, so while a bouncing tiger named Tigger could appear in upcoming horror flicks, he couldn\u2019t look the same as he does in animated Disney films.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mickey\u2019s predecessor, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, entered the public domain in January 2023. Just before that, Disney released their first Oswald cartoon in 95 years<\/a>, ensuring they retained some copyright protections on the character.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On January 1, 2024, \u201cSteamboat Willie,\u201d and consequently the characters of Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse, will enter the public domain. In the past, Disney pushed for extended copyright laws… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40180,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"0","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[7058],"class_list":["post-40179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-disney-makes-a-statement-about-mickey-mouse-and-steamboat-willie-finally-entering-public-domain-in-2024"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}