It’s the day Disney tried for decades to avoid: Mickey Mouse entered the public domain on Jan. 1. However, before appropriating Disney’s iconic mascot, know that the only free-for-all is the specific version from 1928’s “Steamboat Willie.”
Each year, copyrights expire on a new set of works. Individual copyrights are protected for the creator’s life plus 70 years. Meanwhile, corporate-owned works like “Steamboat Willie” remain intact for 95 years from initial publication.
“Copyright, by design, lasts for a limited time,” said Jennifer Jenkins, director of the Duke Center for the Study of Public Domain.
Jenkins also writes an annual column for “Public Domain Day,” sharing the latest set of works.
“While the copyright is active, it gives the authors, the rights holders, exclusive rights to make copies and to adopt the works,” Jenkins added. “And that’s a very good thing because it provides economic incentives that spur creativity. But after the term expires — when those works go into the public domain — that’s a great thing too, because that means those works can inspire future creators.”
Disney’s piece in question was originally set to enter public domain in 1984. However, the House of Mouse lobbied for a 20-year extension to the copyright term, which Congress granted in the 1970s. In 1998, Congress passed another piece of legislation known as “The Mickey Mouse Protection Act,” which added 20 years to the protection of Disney’s global ambassador and other works.
Only the “Steamboat Willie” version of Mickey — the pupilless mouse with a long tail and a nose that looks more like a rat’s — will enter the public domain. Any more modern versions remain protected under copyright law, as Disney frequently modernizes the mouse and updates the terms.
In 2022, another icon of purity entered the public domain: Winnie the Pooh from A.A. Milne’s original stories. But once again, this protects future iterations, specifically those used by Disney.
“It’s the original Winnie the Pooh as you encounter that charming little bear in the book from 1926, which has many of, not just the visual character, but the personality attributes. You know, the humility, the love of honey, the always being there for his friends,” Jenkins said.
Shortly after making his debut in the public domain, the honey-loving bear was given the horror treatment in “Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey.” The film featured Christopher Robin’s return to the Hundred Acre Wood where Pooh and Piglet have become murderous psychopaths.
This marked the first time Pooh wasn’t made for kids, but a South Florida teacher screened it for their fourth grade classroom anyway. Students asked for the teacher to stop airing it and those who felt traumatized met with a school-provided mental health counselor.
That is the nature of public domain: Once the copyright term expires, anyone has access to the intellectual property to reimagine it however they like.
“Everything that’s been spawned by Shakespeare, you’ve got ‘Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead’ from Hamlet; or you have ‘West Side Story’; or you have ’10 Things I Hate About You’ and ‘Romeo Must Die’ and ‘Gnomeo and Juliet’ — the whole point of the public domain is it enables all these reimaginings,” Jenkins said.
But it’s not unfettered access. There are still several limitations, especially when balancing the distinction between copyright and trademark law.
I can make my own animation off of it, but I can’t go around slapping Mickey Mouse the character on a backpack or a lunchbox or a pair of pajamas, because people would think it was Disney-licensed merchandise.
Director Jennifer Jenkins, Duke Center for the Study of Public Domain
“I can make my own animation off of it, but I can’t go around slapping Mickey Mouse the character on a backpack or a lunchbox or a pair of pajamas, because people would think it was Disney-licensed merchandise,” Jenkins said.
“It’s possible sometimes to have trademark rights, which is a different kind of law over characters,” she continued. “And they don’t expire after a set term the way copyrights do. They last for as long as someone is using that character as a brand.”
If the number of products featuring the famous mouse is any indication, Disney isn’t worried about losing that trademark. As for the public domain, the company itself has greatly benefitted from that arrangement since its inception.
“‘Snow White,’ ‘Sleeping Beauty,’ ‘Cinderella,’ ‘The Three Musketeers,’ ‘Christmas Carol,’ ‘Alice in Wonderland,’ all of these Disney movies were based on public domain works,” Jenkins said.
Disney told The Associated Press in December that ever since Mickey Mouse’s first appearance, “People have associated the character with Disney’s stories, experiences and authentic products. That will not change when the copyright in the ‘Steamboat Willie’ film expires.”
Pooh’s springy friend Tigger also joins Mickey Mouse in the public domain this year, but Jenkins says one of the best things about a copyright running out isn’t the headline-grabbing works.
“One of the most exciting things for me about the public domain is all of those works that no one’s thinking about, no one’s heard of, that have been completely forgotten after 70, 80, 95 years,” Jenkins said. “Those are the works where the barriers to access have been removed and they’re waiting to be rediscovered.”
