2023-12-29 13:45:13
Almost a century following its cinematic debut, copyright protection for the first Mickey Mouse flick ever made ends at the turn of the year: Under US law, the copyright on the short black-and-white cartoon “Steamboat Willie” from 1928 expires on January 1st. This leaves the door open for remakes, spin-offs and adaptations by other artists – as well as legal disputes with Disney.
In theory, anyone can now copy, reuse and adapt “Steamboat Willie” and “Plane Crazy” – another Disney cartoon from 1928 – as well as the original characters that appear in them, such as Mickey and Minnie Mouse. “This is an iconic, highly anticipated moment,” said Jennifer Jenkins, a public domain specialist at Duke University.
A version of “Steamboat Willie” would be possible, for example, in which the ship gets stranded in a dry riverbed due to climate change, or a feminist version in which Minnie takes the helm. But it won’t be easy thanks to the Disney Group: It will continue to protect its “rights to the more modern versions of Mickey Mouse and other works that are still subject to copyright,” explains the powerful company.
In fact, the mouse in “Steamboat Willie” is a rather skinny, crudely drawn character with relatively small ears that many viewers would have difficulty identifying as Mickey Mouse. “In the future, only this small animal in black and white will be free for use, but not the Mickey Mouse that is so familiar to today’s generations of Americans,” says Justin Hughes from the Loyola University Law School. He expects “legal skirmishes” if newer elements of Mickey, such as the red shorts or the white gloves, are copied.
In addition, although copyright expires, trademark law does not. This protects the source of a work and prevents someone else from producing a product in such a way that consumers might mistake it for the original. These rights can be extended indefinitely.
Disney says it is now working to “protect consumers from confusion.” As a precaution, the company has included an excerpt from “Steamboat Willy” in the opening credits of all animated films produced by its studios.
“The people at Disney are very smart: They realized that the best thing to do was to trademark this famous scene from ‘Steamboat Willie,'” says legal expert Hughes. In this way, someone who uses the classic image of Mickey Mouse at the helm of the steamboat on T-shirts, caps or mugs might be prosecuted.
According to public domain expert Jenkins, Disney might be wrong: “Our Supreme Court has made it clear that it is not possible to assert trademark rights to circumvent copyright expiration,” she says. But Jenkins also expects legal disputes. In any case, anyone hoping to make money from Disney’s popular mascot should “proceed with caution – and with a lawyer,” summarizes lawyer Hughes.
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