Disney (Istock Photo)
On October 1, 2024 it will happen: Mickey Mouse, the character who made Walt Disney the hot name in the world of animation, will cease to be the exclusive domain of the company founded by the groundbreaking animator, and will become public domain. Anyone who wants to can use it freely (almost) in new works – which could lead to a flood of comic books, series and movies starring the mouse that is familiar to almost every child who grew up in a modern country in the last century.
This is because Mickey Mouse’s first appearance was in a cartoon published on October 1, 1928. Under American copyright law, any work published since 1927 is entitled to protection for 95 years (although there are some divisions in the law, which is not the place to deal with) – And for the cartoon mouse, as mentioned, it will happen another year and three months.
In theory, this means that Netflix, Disney’s biggest competitor, which has been searching for the past two years for characters and entertainment worlds that will attract new audiences – especially children – could start creating its own original and exclusive Mickey Mouse series. Such a move may even be a sweet revenge on all the content that was already available on Netflix and removed from it to move to the Disney filming service. But such plans are not currently known – and in light of legal complications there may not be any.
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Daniel Maida, deputy director of the Legal Documentary Clinic at the University of California, Los Angeles, explained earlier this week to the British Guardian that “anyone can use the character of Mickey Mouse as originally created to create their own Mickey Mouse stories. But whoever thinks so “Disney – a reasonable possibility, since they’ve been investing in this character for such a long time – so in theory, Disney could say: You’ve infringed our copyright.” He noted that while the law would cause the copyright on the mouse itself to expire – it was only the way it was painted in the same 1928 film. The upgrades in his design that came later, as well as his typical sentences, and even his clothes – all still belong to Disney for different periods, and some even forever. This is in light of the fact that the lawsuits, for example, can be registered as a trademark, the rights to which are not limited in time at all.
An example of the level of “danger” inherent in the attempt to use the character of Mickey Mouse from the end of next year can be seen in the use made of the character of Winnie the Pooh, the work of illustrator and writer Alan Alexander Milne who was sold to Disney after his death. The rights to Winnie the Pooh expired as early as January this year, and shortly thereafter various creators began to find ways to exploit this fact for new works starring him.
Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds recently released an advertisement for Mint Mobile, the cellular company he owns in the US.
In addition, a new film is currently being produced starring Pooh and Piglet, under the name “Pooh the Bear: Blood and Honey”. It’s a horror movie, in which the bear and return on a brutal killing spree after their old friend Christopher Robin abandons them. The one missing from the film is Tiger, the tiger friend of the previous ones, as the rights to it will only expire next year, and the film is scheduled to be released before the end of the current year.
The writer and director is Reese Waterfield, who explained in an interview with Variety that “we tried to be extremely careful. We knew there was a line between (use of copyright infringement or registered trademarks), and we knew what their copyright was and what they did. “(The characters) from 1926. No one is going to confuse it (Disney) – when you see the poster of it, and you see the trailers and the pictures and all that, there’s no way anyone will think it’s a children’s version of it.” He noted, for example, that even Poe’s shirt had been altered, so as not to get entangled in the possibility of copyright infringement on this design.
These complications are a source of long-standing friction. Republican Sen. Josh Holly, who represents the state of Florida, recently threatened to repeal Disney’s copyrights to allow independent creators to use her characters in works that would not advance the progressive values the company promotes, as revealed this year in a video of company employees leaked to the media by a conservative worker. . However, Ida estimates that such an attempt will never succeed – and that it is even possible that Disney is already working to put pressure on U.S. lawmakers to try to legislate for a further extension of copyright.
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