The famous Mickey mouse will soon celebrate his 95th birthday. And to celebrate this, what could be better than offering your image to the whole world? Nearly a century after its arrival on screens, the first version of Mickey Mouse will enter the public domain this Monday, January 1, paving the way for potential revivals, adaptations and derivative products… but also for potential clashes legal proceedings with Disney.
The deadline has been awaited for a long time by creators, filmmakers and simple fans. But also and above all by the leaders of the Disney group, who are already preparing weapons to protect their mascot. In a statement, the multinational assured that it “continues to protect (its) rights to more recent versions of Mickey and other works that remain protected by copyright.”
You can recognize him by his big round ears, his white gloves or his red shorts with buttons. But the original Mickey, which enters the public domain, is far removed from that of today.
In Steamboat Willie, released in 1928, Mickey is already wearing his shorts but has a small rat’s face with a more elongated snout than today. This version is the only one that can be reproduced. It will therefore be possible to commercially exploit the original cartoon and its soundtrack, to use images from it and to sell reproductions on all media. Anyone will now be able to freely copy, share or adapt Steambot Willie but also Plane Crazy – another animated short film from 1928 – as well as use the first versions of certain characters like Minnie.
These copyright-free adaptations should therefore not show Mickey’s gloves, which appeared in 1929, or his emblematic sorcerer’s apprentice outfit, which appeared in Fantasia in 1940. “What is in the public domain is this sort of a small, scary animal in black and white,” Justin Hughes, professor of law at Loyola University, told AFP. “The most familiar Mickey Mouse of current generations will remain under copyright protection,” he adds, saying he expects “this will give rise to legal clashes,” such as formal notices.
Mickey and Minnie Mouse should have entered the public domain in 1984, but a 1976 law enacted by the United States Congress extended the term of all copyrights to 75 years after publication, pushing back the expiration of the rights from Steamboat Willie in 2004.
In 1998, Congress passed another law, later named the Mickey Mouse Protection Act, the result of extensive lobbying by Disney. This once again extended the duration of copyright by 20 years, or 95 years in total, compared to 70 years after the death of the author in France. Enough to shelter the little mouse for a long time.
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If copyright ends on January 1, this is not the case for those protecting the registered trademark. The former prohibit unlicensed reproduction of the creative work and expire after a given period. The latter protect the source of the work against products that could mislead consumers into believing that it comes from the original creator. These rights can be renewed indefinitely.
The Disney group assured that it was “working to put in place safeguards to avoid any confusion among consumers linked to unauthorized uses of Mickey or other iconic characters”.
The company has also added a Steambot Willie scene to the opening of all animated films produced by its studios. “They were very smart at Disney: they realized that the best thing to do was to transform this iconic scene into a registered trademark,” notes Justin Hughes. Thus, anyone using this image of Mickey at the helm of the ship – the most famous – for commercial purposes would expose themselves to potential legal action.
If Disney tries as best it can to keep control of its mascot, it is because it knows well the advantages of the public domain for creators. A relatively long list of characters reimagined by Disney were royalty-free, such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs by the Brothers Grimm, but also Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella by Charles Perrault.
The rights to the first Winnie the Pooh book recently expired, leading to projects like Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey, a horror film about the Pooh. This low-budget production grossed $5 million at the worldwide box office and a sequel is reportedly in the works.
Other works that will enter the public domain in 2024 include Agatha Christie’s The Blue Train and Winnie the Pooh: A Bear’s House, the book in which Tigger first appeared. The first version of Tigger should therefore also be able to be freely reproduced.
