By Amber Murray
Mickey Mouse, the face of Disney, is arguably one of the most recognizable cultural symbols of America.
For good or evil, he has been used to boost morale during wars, as cultural propaganda, and to soften many a political figure (nearly every U.S. President starting with Harry Truman has personally met with Mickey Mouse, excluding Lyndon Johnson).
His release from copyright purgatory into the public domain on January 1 is “the [domain’s] most anticipated entry yet,” according to Jennifer Jenkins, director of the Duke Center for the Study of the Public Domain, who writes a yearly note on the various works entering the public domain.
Legally, it means that anyone can copy and reproduce the 1928 version of Mickey Mouse without the permission of notoriouslycopyright-vigilant Disney.
Disney forbid a stonemason from carving Winnie the Pooh into a child’s gravestone in 2007 under copyright law. They also forced a California primary school to pay $250 for an unauthorized showing of The Lion King in 2020, for which Bob Igor was forced to apologise on X (formerly Twitter).
In 1989, Disney sued the Academy Awards for an unauthorised showing of Snow White.
The works entering the US public domain were first set to be released in 1984, but lobbying – particularly from Disney and the George Gershwin estate – managed to push that date back first to 2004, and then to 2024.
“This is a big one,” Jenkins said. “It’s generating so much excitement in the copyright community — it’s finally happening.”
Steamboat Willie, the cartoon featuring and a slightly more rat-like early Mickey, which will lose its copyright in a few days, also happens to be the first video to fully incorporate sound.
Ironically, Steamboat Willie itself included the song “Turkey in the Straw,” which was in public domain at the time of production.
So, what does this mean for the brand, and for artists who want to use Mickey’s image in their own work?
Unfortunately, it might not be quite so simple as earlier copyright changes, such as the loss of copyright for Pride & Prejudice, which led to numerous faithful and not-so-faithful adaptions – including a hit Broadway show Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of) and the movie Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.
The character of Winne the Pooh, which lost its copyright this time last year, was promptly turned into a slasher movie called Winne the Pooh: Blood and Honey, which features a Christopher-Robin-less and bloodthirsty Pooh and Piglet searching for a new source of food. Incidentally, the character of Tigger loses copyright at the same time as Steamboat Willie.
The difference with Disney’s Mickey Mouse is to do with trademarks and the changing nature of the character.
Firstly, Disney has tightened its association with the video of Steamboat Willie by using it in the opening credits for all of its films since 2006.
Trademarks are protected under a different US law, and do not expire so long as the company continues to submit the proper paperwork. Trademarks are designed to protect against consumer confusion, so any use of Mickey Mouse which suggests he belongs to a brand other than Disney is illegal.
Lessing suggests that this might not be a huge problem, so long as artists make it clear their work was not “produced, endorsed, licensed, or approved by Disney.”
“Trademark rights cannot be used to block the freedoms that the expiration of copyright allows,” Lessing said.
Secondly, only the Steamboat Willie version of Mickey Mouse will lose copyright – the modern, white-gloved Mickey remains protected for now.
This somewhat limits artists’ opportunities for creative expression, although avenues remain.
“A lot of people do lots of things,” Lawrence Lessig, a Harvard law professor who has written and advocated extensively on copyright issues, told Variety. “This is the thing that people in Hollywood are not focused on. There’s an extraordinary range of people who create just for the love of creativity.”
“It’s significant,” Lessig said. “Let’s hope it’s the opening of a new chapter.”
However, another roadblock may be that even though Steamboat Willie will soon be in the public domain, the copyright and trademark laws are so complicated (and strongly upheld by Disney) that most people are unlikely to publish something risky that might lead to a challenge from Disney in court.
“They won’t be able to go after everyone,” Aaron J. Moss, a partner at Greenberg Glusker in Los Angeles who specializes in copyright and trademark law, told the NYT. “Battle lines will have to be drawn… The question is where Disney tries to draw the line on enforcement, and if courts get involved to draw that line judicially.”
“We will, of course, continue to protect our rights in the more modern versions of Mickey Mouse and other works that remain subject to copyright,” Disney said in a statement.
“More modern versions of Mickey will remain unaffected by the expiration of the Steamboat Willie copyright, and Mickey will continue to play a leading role as a global ambassador for the Walt Disney Company in our storytelling, theme park attractions, and merchandise,” the company said.
Other works entering the public domain on January 1 include DH Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, and Cole Porter’s Let’s Do It (Let’s Fall In Love).
In the next decade, early versions of franchise-leading characters such as Superman, Batman, Donald Duck, The Hobbit, and James Bond are all headed into the public domain.
