Independent Leyton Orient Forum

Disney loses copyright of Steamboat Willie, and already there's an indie horror film

The Mouse is Out is a great tagline.

It always baffled me how Mickey became the iconic character. Donald Duck is far far better a character

Sorry to be all Spen about it but Mickey Mouse isn't out of copyright, steamboat willie is. I hope the film makers know this.

CEB wrote: ↑Tue Jan 02, 2024 9:40 am It always baffled me how Mickey became the iconic character. Donald Duck is far far better a character

Pluto kicks the 5hit out of both.

Rich Tea Wellin wrote: ↑Tue Jan 02, 2024 12:01 pm Sorry to be all Spen about it but Mickey Mouse isn't out of copyright, steamboat willie is. I hope the film makers know this.

Unfortunately you’re incorrect. The version of Mickey Mouse featured in Steamboat Willie is out of copyright, for the same reason that the film Steamboat Willie is.

So the name “Mickey Mouse” and the design/likeness used in that film, is now in the public domain. Aspects of the character that were added later are not yet in the public domain.

I suspect the filmmakers know this.

(Interestingly, we’re only a few years off Batman and Superman going into the public domain, but weirdly enough, usage will be limited to their earliest iterations too, so Batman will be a gun toting detective and Superman won’t be able to fly, in any content created that uses this characters without permission from those who own the copyright to later iterations)

That is actually interesting.

The idea behind copyright - and copyright expiry - is in itself quite interesting IMO.
We sort of take it for granted as a background thing about what you “can’t do”
But the idea of it is a two sided protection of creativity.
The principles are: one - people who have creative ideas should be able to monetise them, and have a period of time where they can develop the idea and be appropriately rewarded
and
two: that ultimately, creative ideas should eventually belong to everyone, and after a creator has had enough time to achieve financial security (or as close to possible to it) from realisation of an idea, in whatever form, then humanity gets to share in the idea and maybe build on it.

It’ll be interesting to see how this concept develops in the next few years, as I reckon big companies will really push hard to not have competing takes on Star Wars/Marvel/Bond at any point.

It might even eventually spark a paradigm shift in forcing studios to start looking at new stories/characters/types of movie out of necessity

He was originally going to be called Mortimer Mouse. I think I would have taken to him a bit more if he'd kept that name