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A comment on Millions of Books Are Secretly in the Public Domain. Parent comment

Re:Millions of Books Are Secretly in the Public Domain by jcranmer on Tuesday August 06, 2019 @02:46PM (#20628204)
The Steamboat Willie shorts will go public domain on January 1, 2024 under current law--if they are not already in public domain due to Disney failing to observe all the proper copyright steps (this is alleged, but has never been argued, successfully or otherwise, in a court). If Disney desires to extend copyright to keep Mickey Mouse from slipping to the pubic domain, they are rapidly running out of time to do so.

I strongly suspect that next decade will see Mickey Mouse fall into the public domain.

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Re:Millions of Books Are Secretly in the Public Domain by mgbennet on Tuesday August 06, 2019 @04:17PM (#20629099)
One oddity regarding characters is that the only thing that becomes public domain is the character as portrayed in that public domain material. In the case of Mickey, that means only his appearance in Steamboat Willie would become public domain in 2024, with more material being released to the public domain each year. What that entails is... sort of confusing, I think, and will come down to individual cases. Depending on how it is used, a post-2024 portrayal of Mickey might be a copyright violation or might not be.

Additionally, Mickey is also trademarked, which lasts forever as long as it is used commercially by the owner. So the mouse's likeness is not likely to be public domain as long as the Disney company exists and continues to use it.

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