The Mickey Copyright Issue

[Albright]

I've got some questions about this that hopefully someone can answer...

So Mickey himself is a non-expiring trademark, not a copyrighted character, right? So even if the Supreme Court strikes this down, folks still won't legally be able to make their own Mickey Mouse cartoons, right? Hypothetically...

This case only applies to the actual cartoons that he starred in, correct?

The copyright terms before the twenty-year extension lasted for fifty years after the creator's death. Disney died in '66, yet every article I've seen has said that the copyrights for early Mickey 'toons would expire next year. That doesn't add up... What am I calculating wrong?

When will Warner 'toons start becoming public domain? (I was under the impression some were already...)

Thanks for any answers fellow 'toon fans can provide... I'm thinking of writing something about this issue for my little 'toon magazine.

[mbaker]

Here's the whole issue in A nutshell. Mickey Mouse was introduced in the animated flick "Steamboat Willie" in 1928. Original works prior to 1978 that were made for hire have a copyright life of 75 years. Thus, in 2003, the mouse becomes public domain. In the next few years, Disney is going to lose the exclusive copyright of much of its characters, unless they bride some congressmen into extending the lengths of copyrights. This doens't mean I'll suddenly be able to make Harlan Ellison's Disney porn free and clear. Disney will still keep the rights to Mickey and others, but that Steamboat Willie cartoon itself will become public domain. Might as well milk that mouse for all its worth now, huh? It always puzzles me how Mickey has been so terribly underused. (The same thing can be said about the Terrytoons.) Winnie The Pooh, unfortunately, gets way overused, and there's already A lawsuit over him. (If you ask me, Mickey is way better that Pooh. At least by comparison.)

[Psycho Fox]

Originally posted by mbaker
In the next few years, Disney is going to lose the exclusive copyright of much of its characters, unless they bride some congressmen into extending the lengths of copyrights.

Well there is a push to add conditions to copyrights that will time out if the copyright work is out of distrabution for too long (the time is under debate but it would be around 25 years out of circulation). Thus under this proposal for example TTA: Sping Break Special will eventuly be public doman much quicker if it remains out of distrabution.

[Anthonynotes]

Originally posted by mbaker
Here's the whole issue in A nutshell. Mickey Mouse was introduced in the animated flick "Steamboat Willie" in 1928. Original works prior to 1978 that were made for hire have a copyright life of 75 years. Thus, in 2003, the mouse becomes public domain. In the next few years, Disney is going to lose the exclusive copyright of much of its characters, unless they bride some congressmen into extending the lengths of copyrights. This doens't mean I'll suddenly be able to make Harlan Ellison's Disney porn free and clear. Disney will still keep the rights to Mickey and others, but that Steamboat Willie cartoon itself will become public domain. Might as well milk that mouse for all its worth now, huh? It always puzzles me how Mickey has been so terribly underused. (The same thing can be said about the Terrytoons.) Winnie The Pooh, unfortunately, gets way overused, and there's already A lawsuit over him. (If you ask me, Mickey is way better that Pooh. At least by comparison.)

Well, it *was* just 75 years, until Disney (and a few other mega-conglomorates, though Disney was the loudest voice, IIRC) back in the late 90's lobbied (or paid off, since lobbying seems to about amount to the same thing in US govt. nowadays...) Congress to pass the "Sonny Bono Copyright Protection Act" (IIRC, that's its actual name) which extended the copyright on various works published in "Steamboat Willie"'s era by about another 20 years---thus, instead of "Willie" going into public domain after the end of next year, you'll have to wait until 2023 or so...if not further, given that I'm sure Disney et. al. will be back before then to lobby to extend copyrights further. Of course, various freedom of information groups, historian groups, etc. have all complained/filed lawsuits/etc. to try to overturn this, but from the current look of things, it seems doubtful it'll get overturned anytime soon...

Under the old copyright laws, the first Looney Tunes cartoons (1930's Bosko cartoons) would've gone public domain in 2005, but now, probaby not until 2025 (and Bugs Bunny, sometime in 2035 or so...).

Trademarks and trademark laws are different from copyrights; with trademarks, the item/character/word has to be proven or shown as being in regular use or somewhat regular use by a certain individual/company, or that item/etc. vigorously defended by said company, or else said image of item/word/etc. can become a non-trademarked (or "public domain") item. At one time, "aspirin" was a trademarked word, but no longer. Hence, one reason why you'll see in writer's magazines Xerox™, Kleenex™, whoever urging writers not to use those words instead of "photocopier", "tissue", etc. And also, comic book fans, why you'll see old characters that haven't appeared in quite sometime making sporadic appearances (like Devil Dinosaur or Krypto the Superdog or something)...

For info on copyright laws in the US as they currently stand, here's a website:
http://www.unc.edu/~unclng/public-d.htm

-B.