This is a silly question, but when exactly did Mickey Mouse enter the public domain? On January 1, sure, but which time zone?
Disney's earliest Mickey Mouse enters public domain as US copyright expires
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Re: Disney's earliest Mickey Mouse enters public domain as US copyright expires
#42Before people cheer too much, surprisingly works can retroactively be snatched back from the public domain and go back into copyrighted state. The prime example is the movie Metropolis . It became public domain in 1953 but copyright was restored in 1996 only to re-enter the public domain a year ago today.
This intrigues me as I had no idea, at one time, that the US didn't have the most restrictive copyright laws in the world. It looks like the US had to restore/extend copyrights to foreign works as part of the agreement that established the WTO? That being said, copyright is a product of laws and laws can always change. Your comment made me believe that the copyright owner somehow extended their rights; not a literal…
> It looks like the US had to restore/extend copyrights to foreign works as part of the agreement that established the WTO?
What happens is that lobbyists for the same (copyright) interest groups instructs their governments that extended copyright is in their interest, and that whoever have the longest should “win” and become the norm.
WTOs are basically big business “negotiating” with itself through nation states.
Re: Disney's earliest Mickey Mouse enters public domain as US copyright expires
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
Retroactive copyright extensions are changing the deal after it has been made, for the benefit of copyright holders and to the detriment of the public. This is unethical. That's why I get angry when copyright holders try to make ethical arguments against piracy.
You have a deal with a copyright holder? Have you considered taking them to court over it? I'd donate to help get you what their contract owes you, and I'm sure others would, too.
The deal that society has is that "we follow the law and they follow the law".
Not "we follow the law and they have it changed so that we have to do whatever they want".
Re: Disney's earliest Mickey Mouse enters public domain as US copyright expires
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
Retroactive copyright extensions are changing the deal after it has been made, for the benefit of copyright holders and to the detriment of the public. This is unethical. That's why I get angry when copyright holders try to make ethical arguments against piracy.
You have a deal with a copyright holder? Have you considered taking them to court over it? I'd donate to help get you what their contract owes you, and I'm sure others would, too.
I believe op is referring to the deal between the copyright holder and the public - the public grants exclusive use of the content to encourage creativity, in exchange, the work will eventually become public. In extending the duration a work is protected, the deal is being modified.
Re: Disney's earliest Mickey Mouse enters public domain as US copyright expires
#45This is a silly question, but when exactly did Mickey Mouse enter the public domain? On January 1, sure, but which time zone?
On whatever local time where you are (at least for US). The "at least in US" is important since that most people who didn't clarify that "Steamboat Willie" is in the public domain specifically in reference to US laws - in other countries it is either already PD, or in a handful countries like Mexico (which has author+100, technically no concept of corporate copyright except for the government) is still not PD.
Re: Disney's earliest Mickey Mouse enters public domain as US copyright expires
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
You have a deal with a copyright holder? Have you considered taking them to court over it? I'd donate to help get you what their contract owes you, and I'm sure others would, too.
The deal that society has is that "we follow the law and they follow the law". Not "we follow the law and they have it changed so that we have to do whatever they want".
The law is the will of ”we”. ”They” can’t change the law – only ”we” can.
Re: Disney's earliest Mickey Mouse enters public domain as US copyright expires
#47[deleted]
Re: Disney's earliest Mickey Mouse enters public domain as US copyright expires
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
Retroactive copyright extensions are changing the deal after it has been made, for the benefit of copyright holders and to the detriment of the public. This is unethical. That's why I get angry when copyright holders try to make ethical arguments against piracy.
You have a deal with a copyright holder? Have you considered taking them to court over it? I'd donate to help get you what their contract owes you, and I'm sure others would, too.
You only have a very weak negotiating power and only during the election campaign while copyright holders have very, very strong negotiation power (money) all the time. So they can change the law whenever and however they want to. Your "contract" with the lawmakers can change at any time regardless of your (or the majority's) wishes, which on the face of it is extremely undemocratic. So the "take them to court" strategy is doomed to fail but people are still correct to point out how unethical and immoral this is.
In the same vein, piracy may be illegal but sometimes it just balances out this immorality and lack of ethics of copyright holders and lawmakers. If we follow the same reasoning, if a pirate is not taken to court then it wasn't illegal.
Re: Disney's earliest Mickey Mouse enters public domain as US copyright expires
#49“US copyright law says the rights to characters can be held for 95 years.” 95 years ago was also about when the cinema and recording industries began. Since then, I’ll argue, all recorded entertainment and theatrical performances have become “fixed” into our culture similar to how Plato, the Bible, and Shakespeare became cultural touchstones due to literacy and the printing press. And now, as they enter the public do…
Is Mickey content good enough that we'll see continued interest? My encounters with Mickey (35 year old American) have been only through the movie Fantasia and I know he is a prominent mascot of Disney World. But the pull to Disney world is probably what, Star Wars or Pixar these days? I was recently thinking Star Wars and the Friends TV series could reach that permanent status. Mickey seems unlikely to me.
My kid was obsessed with the 1930s Disney cartoons, including the black and white Mickeys, from age 2 to 5.
Re: Disney's earliest Mickey Mouse enters public domain as US copyright expires
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's probably not this far, DALL-E / GPT4 has some issues.... https://twitter.com/bpiatt/status/1740915306359329233
The claim that this looks like modern mickey mouse is wild to me.
Looks more like Mighty Mouse https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mighty_Mouse