As Mickey Mouse’s 95-year copyright is slated to expire in two years, Disney may soon lose the exclusive rights to its most recognizable animated mascot.
According to U.S. copyright law, which specifies that intellectual property on artistic works ends 95 years after first publication, Mickey will be accessible to the public domain in 2024.
Mickey Mouse, one of the most well-known animated characters, first introduced in the 1920s and has since come to represent the media giant Disney.
Disney’s copyright was initially secured for 56 years when he first debuted in 1928, but as the popular animated character’s copyright was about to expire, Disney successfully fought for the Copyright Act of 1976, extending protections to 75 years.
Then, in 1998, Disney pushed for an additional extension that would have given it protection for 95 years.
Whether the media behemoth intends to take more action to stop Mickey from entering the public domain before 2023 is unknown. DailyMail.com has inquired for a response.
Anyone intending to utilize characters or ideas from everyone’s favourite rodent after the copyright expires won’t need to ask permission or pay copyright fees.
This suggests that storytellers could make Mickey the protagonist of non-Disney tales.
The character might follow in the footsteps of Winnie the Pooh, whose copyright expired in January and who only lately became part of the public domain.
Since then, Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Horror, a horror film, has presented the children’s character as a serial killer.
People will be permitted to create new Mickey narratives, but if they are overly similar to Disney’s original, they may still be subject to copyright claims, according to Daniel Mayeda, Associate Director of the Film Legal Clinic at UCLA School of Law, who spoke to The Guardian.
To develop your own Mickey Mouse stories or stories using this character, you can use the Mickey Mouse character as it was originally intended, Mayeda told the publication.
However, if you do it in a way that makes people think of Disney—which is rather plausible given how much they have invested in this character over the years—Disney might claim that you have violated its copyright.
A 1928 cartoon called Hungry Hobos, which was only discovered in 2011, is where the iconic Mickey first appeared.
A character from the Disney animated feature was later found in a British film archive and was the inspiration for Mickey Mouse.
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit is depicted in the black-and-white footage, which was created just before the character was dropped and changed to Mickey Mouse that same year.
On November 18, 1928, the Colony Theatre on Broadway hosted the world premiere of “Steamboat Willie,” the first motion picture to feature Mickey as he is presently known.
The movie would make Mickey a star. It was one of the first cartoons to employ synchronized sound and music.
Alongside his partner Minnie Mouse, dog Pluto, and buddies Donald Duck and Goofy, he has made over 130 cinematic appearances.
Winnie the Pooh’s copyright expiration in January is followed by Mickey’s.
When Winnie fans learned that Jagged Edge Productions will give A. A. Milne’s endearing characters a nasty twist in May, they reacted horrified.
The production company revealed plans to turn the beloved children’s novel Pooh and Piglet into a horror film in which they turn into nasty serial killers.
Winnie the Pooh should always be treated with “sacrosanctity,” according to fans who said they were “devastated” by the decision.
According to IMDB, the film Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey is a horror thriller that follows Pooh and Piglet as they go on the lam when Christopher Robin abandons them.
Due to being left on their own, the two resort to a life of crime and killing, turning into rabid wild creatures.
The Winnie the Pooh rights were sold by Milne’s widow to Stephen Slesinger shortly after his 1956 passing; Slesinger then sold the rights to the Walt Disney Company.
Milne’s widow and three other groups each acquired a portion of the rights, which they then sold to Disney in 2001.
Disney still owns the copyright to its own version of the bear, as well as to all movies and photos that use them, despite the fact that the rights to the original Winnie the Pooh characters have now lapsed.