Hap-py New Year!
We can now “do to Dis-ney what Dis-ney did to the great works of the pub-lic domain before him,” accord-ing to Har-vard law pro-fes-sor and pub-lic domain expert, Lawrence Lessig, hailed by The New York-er as “the most impor-tant thinker on intel-lec-tu-al prop-er-ty in the Inter-net era.”
On Jan-u-ary 1, Mick-ey Mouse and his con-sort, Min-nie, wrig-gled free of their cre-ator’s iron fist for the first time in cor-po-rate his-to-ry, as their debut per-for-mance in Steam-boat Willie entered the pub-lic domain along with thou-sands of oth-er 1928 works — Lady Chat-ter-ley’s Lover, All Qui-et on the West-ern Front, and The House at Pooh Cor-ner to name but a star-ry few.
Dis-ney has been noto-ri-ous-ly pro-tec-tive of its con-trol over its spokesmouse, suc-cess-ful-ly push-ing Con-gress to adopt the Son-ny Bono Copy-right Exten-sion Act of 1998, which kept the public’s mitts off of Steam-boat Willie, and, more to the point, Mick-ey Mouse, for 25 years beyond the terms of the Copy-right Act of 1976.
But now our day has come…
Don’t be shy!
Dig in!
Dis-ney always did.
As Lessig remarked in a 2003 lec-ture at Prince-ton Uni-ver-si-ty:
Walt Dis-ney embraced the free-dom to take, change and return ideas from our pop-u-lar cul-ture. The rip, mix and burn cul-ture of the Inter-net is Dis-ney-famil-iar.
Cin-derel-la, Snow White, Pinoc-chio — Uncle Walt knew how to take lib-er-ties and make mon-ey with cap-ti-vat-ing source mate-r-i-al, a tra-di-tion that con-tin-ued through such lat-er car-toon block-busters as The Lit-tle Mer-maid and Dis-ney’s Snow Queen update, Frozen.
Steam-boat Willie was-n’t con-jured from thin air either. Its plot and title char-ac-ter were inspired by Buster Keaton’s Steam-boat Bill, released two months before Disney’s ani-mat-ed short went into pro-duc-tion.
A few caveats for those eager to take a crack at the Mouse…
Steam-boat Willie’s new-found pub-lic domain sta-tus doesn’t give you carte blanche to mess around with Mick-ey and Min-nie in all their many forms.
Stick to the music-lov-ing black-and-white trick-ster with rub-ber-hose arms, but-ton-trimmed short-shorts, and the dis-tinct-ly rodent-like tail that went by the way-side for Mickey’s appear-ance in 1941’s The Lit-tle Whirl-wind.
Nor can Steam-boat Willie-era Mick-ey become your new logo. Plop the char-ac-ter down in new nar-ra-tives, yes. Use him in a rec-og-niz-able way for pur-pos-es of adver-tis-ing unre-lat-ed prod-ucts, no.
Mis-lead view-ers into think-ing your mash up is Dis-ney-approved at your own risk. A Dis-ney spokesper-son told CNN:
We will, of course, con-tin-ue to pro-tect our rights in the more mod-ern ver-sions of Mick-ey Mouse and oth-er works that remain sub-ject to copy-right, and we will work to safe-guard against con-sumer con-fu-sion caused by unau-tho-rized uses of Mick-ey and our oth-er icon-ic char-ac-ters.
Don’t think they don’t mean it.
Author Robert Thomp-son, the found-ing direc-tor of Syra-cuse University’s Bleier Cen-ter for Tele-vi-sion and Pop-u-lar Cul-ture told The Guardian that even though “the orig-i-nal Mick-ey isn’t the one we all think of and have on our T?shirts or pil-low-cas-es up in the attic some-place,” the com-pa-ny is hyper-vig-i-lant about pro-tect-ing its assets:
Sym-bol-i-cal-ly of course, copy-right is impor-tant to Dis-ney and it has been very care-ful about their copy-rights to the extent that laws have changed to pro-tect them. This is the only place I know that some obscure high school in the mid-dle of nowhere can put on The Lion King and the Dis-ney copy-right peo-ple show up.
Per-haps your best bet is to make sure your work skews toward satire or par-o-dy, a la the infa-mous hor-ror film Win-nie the Pooh: Blood and Hon-ey, which cap-i-tal-ized on author A.A. Milne’s 1926 book, Win-nie the Pooh’s entrance into the pub-lic domain, while traf-fick-ing in some famil-iar char-ac-ter design. Dis-ney ulti-mate-ly let it slide.
Fumi Games is already poised to take a sim-i-lar gam-ble with MOUSE, a blood-soaked, “grit-ty, jazz-fueled shoot-er” set to drop in 2025:
If you’re not yet ready to take the plunge, Mickey’s pals Plu-to and Don-ald Duck will join him in the pub-lic domain lat-er this decade, so don your think-ing caps and mark your cal-en-dars.
For a more in-depth look at the ways you can — and can-not — use Steam-boat Willie-era Mick-ey Mouse in your own work, Duke Uni-ver-si-ty’s Cen-ter for the Study of the Pub-lic Domain sup-plies a very thor-ough guide here.
Relat-ed Con-tent
The Dis-ney Car-toon That Intro-duced Mick-ey Mouse & Ani-ma-tion with Sound (1928)
“Evil Mick-ey Mouse” Invades Japan in a 1934 Japan-ese Ani-me Pro-pa-gan-da Film
– Ayun Hal-l-i-day is the Chief Pri-ma-tol-o-gist of the East Vil-lage Inky zine and author of Cre-ative, Not Famous: The Small Pota-to Man-i-festo. Her vari-ety show, Necro-mancers of the Pub-lic Domain, returns to New York City on Feb-ru-ary 29, 2024. Fol-low her @AyunHalliday.
kind-ly VISIT MILTON LEARNING CENTER or apple-tree learn-ing cen-ter for math class-es for kids.