Cartoonists and Disney lovers can celebrate the New Year with the release of Images from a cinema classic featuring Mickey and Minnie Mouse.
Copyright for Steamboat Willie expired today and media from the 1928 short film are now available in the US public domain.
The expiration means that Steamboat Willie can now be legally shared, performed, sampled, and more.
Other copyrights expiring today include Minnie Mouse and Tigger from Winnie the Pooh.
Although this appears to be a long-awaited moment in the entertainment industry, it could lead to media ventures that would possibly become ‘a political lightning rod in pop culture.’
Copyright for Steamboat Willie expired today and media from the 1928 short film are now available in the US public domain
The expiration means that Steamboat Willie can now be legally shared, performed, sampled, and more
According US copyright law, rights to works like Steamboat Willie expire 95 years after the original publication was released or registered by officials if the projects were released before 1978.
One dark truth behind it all is how seriously that copyright law has been taken in the past and how it’s affected the Mickey Mouse character.
Disney has a long history of battles with the copyright law that have caused problems for cartoonists like Dan O’Neill.
The company sued O’Neill for copyright infringement after the artist published a 1971 comic book that featured Mickie Mouse smuggle drugs and performing oral sex on Minnie Mouse.
O’Neill agreed to not draw Mickey again after an eight-year court battle and told Variety last month that if he draws the character, he will owe Walt Disney ‘a $190,000 fine, $10,000 more for legal fees, and a year in prison.’
It’s even led for Disney to support a bill called the Sony Bono Copyright Term Extension Act.
The act, known as the Mickey Mouse Protection Act, being implemented was what saved Steamboat Willie for being in a public domain 20 years ago.
Today, copyright issues advocate Lawrence Lessig believes that the biggest weakness in it is that they have ‘no way to know who owns what.’
‘This is the thing that people in Hollywood are not focused on. There’s an extraordinary range of people who create just for the love of creativity, he added.’
Winnie the Poo was made into a 2023 horror film Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, which reviewed negative reviews at the box office
YouTuber and DSNY Newscast host Jack Kendall gave insight on what Steamboat Willie can become because of the copyright law.
He thinks the characters that are now in the public domain because of the law via BBC might get the horror movie treatment.
An example of this was the 2023 slasher film Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey – a box-office success that received poor reviews from critics.
‘Take away the Pooh and Piglet stuff, and you have a ho-hum stalker thriller that treats its one-dimensional characters as punchlines for gory scenes its budget can’t fully deliver on,’ wrote Nick Allen of RogerEbert.com.
Jenkins also believes that Disney would want to avoid legal fights but that ‘they also want to protect their two most identifiable characters.’
Despite doing well at the box-office, Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey only made $5.2 million worldwide.
If it weren’t for the film’s $100,000 budget, it would’ve had a big chance of becoming a box-office bomb.
Jenkins also believes that Disney would want to avoid legal fights but that ‘they also want to protect their two most identifiable characters
Despite doing well at the box-office, Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey only made $5.2 million worldwide
Disney still benefits from the current copyright laws.
The law states that copyright protection for works created after January 1, 1978 lasts for the life of the author plus an additional 70 years.
Because of this, more recent works like Fantasia are not in public domain and will not be free to use by the public.