Mickey Mouse Is Finally Free (from “Copyright”)

Those in charge of the Disney archives say that in 1930, a man waited outside a hotel in Los Angeles for Walt Disney to propose. The subject was willing to offer him $300 in cash to reproduce a drawing of his on the covers of some notebooks. The cartoon that interested him was that of a mouse that had appeared a few years earlier in the animated short Steamboat Willie, directed by Disney and Ub Iwerks. Disney, which was somewhat lacking in liquidity at the time, immediately said yes. It was the beginning of the exploitation of Mickey Mouse, a character that appeared in countless products over several generations. From January 1st, the world's most famous rodent is free.

Mickey Mouse will lose copyright protection in the USA in 2024. The first modern version of the cartoon, which debuted in the Disney and Iwerks short, in which the mouse controls a steamboat and whistles a 1910 theme, appears on the list of works in the public domain. This annual selection, known as Public Domain Day, is compiled by Jennifer Jenkins, a subject matter expert at Duke University. The generation that will be released in January of this year after 95 years of rights is particularly powerful.

These are works, films and songs published in 1928 (as well as some sound recordings from 1923). In addition to Mickey, you can also see “Lady Chatterley's Lover” by DH Lawrence; Among others, “Orlando” by Virginia Woolf and “The Threepenny Opera” by Bertolt Brecht. These include films by Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, the last silent film by Harold Lloyd, and “The Passion of Joan of Arc” by Carl Theodor Dreyer, which is considered one of the early masterpieces of cinema.

Steamboat Willie was the third play to feature Mickey and Minnie, but it was the first to be performed publicly. Another one of these short films is Plane Crazy. As he himself explained, Disney was inspired to create the mouse by performances by stars of the time such as Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin. The short film's title was taken from Steamboat Bill, a Buster Keaton film (which has been in the public domain for 67 years).

The mouse occupies the most prominent position among the cultural objects that will be exempt from copyright in the United States in 2024. This is especially true due to the copyright battle that the Disney corporation has waged in court over the past few decades in an attempt to displace the benefits that copyright provides to your creative universe. “What Disney has always done is reuse the public realm to re-enclose it,” says Ignasi Labastida, a leader of the Creative Commons organization dedicated to promoting cultural access and exchange.

An example is the 2016 version of The Jungle Book, a film based on the 1957 original, which in turn was based on a collection of stories by Rudyard Kipling, the copyright of which was lost in 2011. The same thing happens with “Frozen,” inspired by a story by Hans Christian Andersen; Fantasy based on a poem by Goethe, or The Lion King, inspired by Shakespeare's Hamlet. Not to mention the Little Mermaid, Cinderella or Pinocchio. “The creation of a derivative work creates new rights, but it is now clear that these cannot be extended indefinitely,” says Labastida.

Notebook from 1930 featuring Mickey Mouse first as a marketing product in the USA. Luis Pablo Beauregard

Disney doesn't just use great works of literature as a creative source. He is also one of the most active actors in defending the rights of his works. “His role was crucial in the lobbying battle that expanded copyright protections in 1976 and then in 1998,” writes science fiction author and digital activist Cory Doctorow. The rule passed by Congress in 1998, proposed by singer-turned-legislator Sonny Bono, froze the transition of works into the public domain for 20 years and set the duration of rights at 95 years. There are some experts who call this law the Mickey Mouse Act, although according to Jenkins this may be an exaggeration (because there were other actors pushing for its approval).

With this law, Mickey Mouse gained time under copyright protection. It is losing it now, but only in the United States. “2024 is a symbolic year,” writes Jenkins. “The love triangle between Mickey, Disney and the public is about to evolve and could even be resolved in real time,” adds the specialist. In the European Union, laws stipulate a statute of limitations of 70 years after the death of the creator of the work. In Spain it's another 10 years. For this reason, we will have to wait until 2036 and 2046 for Walt Disney's creations to appear in Europe.

Starting this year, people in the US can use the mouse freely. However, in such a controversial issue as copyright, there are some conditions. Anyone who wants can use the Steamboat Willie drawing to copy, share, adapt or add to it. However, because it is still a trademark, it cannot be used to associate a third-party product with Disney.

“More modern versions of Mickey are unaffected by Steamboat Willie’s copyright expiration, and Mickey will continue to serve as a global ambassador for our company and for our storytelling, theme parks and merchandise,” he said in a statement from the company's Associated Press Agency . This means that the versions of the rodents that appear in Fantasia or subsequent television series developed by the network will still be protected by copyright. The company assures that “it will help prevent confusion due to unauthorized use of Mickey and other iconic characters.”

The never-never land

In addition to Mickey, another beloved childhood character is making his debut on Public Domain Day. It's about Peter Pan, the boy who refuses to grow up in the Never-Never Land. It was created by Scot JM Barrie and his case helps to understand how capricious and problematic the issue of copyright can be in a global world. The work will lose its protection in the United States in 2024, although the play has been performed since 1904 and the novel was published in 1911.

Peter Pan now appears on the list as it was first published in full in 1928. However, in the UK the story is very different. Shortly after the play's publication, Barrie donated the rights to Great Ormon Street Children's Hospital. Since then, it has been the center's main form of funding, collecting royalties from books, films and plays of the original work.

The rights expired in 1987, but then-Prime Minister James Callaghan proposed a scheme to extend the novel's protection indefinitely. As the EU harmonized its laws, Peter Pan became a problem. So the rest of Europe inherited the 70 years since Barrie's death, while in the UK the hospital remains the beneficiary.

Mickey Mouse is finally free (from “Copyright”)

The never-never land

Babelia

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