[14:08 Wed,3.January 2024 by Rudi Schmidts] |
After almost a century, Mickey Mouse has broken free from Disney&s copyright leash, as the first versions of perhaps the world&s most famous cartoon character have been in the public domain since January 1, 2024. As every year, the "Center for the Study of the Public Domain" at Duke Law School publishes a list of well-known works whose copyright protection expires in the USA.
;) The first Mickey Mouse appearance in Steamboat Willie almost 100 years ago However, copyright is complicated for characters that are constantly evolving. However, the public domain version of Mickey Mouse does not cover design changes made in later works. In addition, Mickey Mouse is also a registered Disney trademark, which is why you still cannot publish works under this name. However, this again contradicts the idea that the public domain should be the ultimate goal of any copyrighted work. So, of course, the inventors should have the legal ability to control and profit from their works for decades. In the long term, however, art almost always builds on the ideas of others, which is why the public domain represents a certain counterweight. Disney even relied on this balance itself for its fairy tale adaptations such as Snow White and Cinderella. Nevertheless, Disney itself delayed the release of Steamboat Willie in the USA for a further 20 years through almost equally well-known lobbying with the "Mickey Mouse Protection Act". But ultimately, this legally extended protection period has now also expired at the beginning of 2024. And perhaps this is just the right time for Mickey Mouse to find his coordinates in a latent space of Stable Diffusion and its ilk.  more infos at bei www.theverge.comdeutsche Version dieser Seite: Mickey Mouse landet nach fast 100 Jahren in der Public Domain |
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