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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

#131

Post by User23 »

jncfhnb wrote: post #105
josho wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disney has modern Mickey wrapped up in trademarks. It will be very interesting watching what Disney does when inevitably derivative works stray from steamboat Willie and approach the appearance of modern mickey. Disney has been preparing for this day.

Seems like an awfully dangerous game to play imo.

The legal metagame around intellectual property has little to do with law as written and much to do with burying your opponent in spurious motions until they run out of money to defend. Odds are good Disney wins that fight against most comers.

Re: Disney's earliest Mickey Mouse enters public domain as US copyright expires

#132

Post by ohdannyboy »

coliveira wrote: post #119
buran77 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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" strat…

This is exactly why "democracy" and "capitalism" are impossible to fully exist side by side. Capitalism rules necessarily destroy democracy because its basis is the accumulation of money and power by a few. On the other hand, perfect democracy will give people the power to remove the money privilege of the few through taxes and policies (the founding founders already knew this). The idea that we have democracy in a c…

So capitalism in practice compared to a perfect democracy where the powerful few handle their power without becoming corrupt? Well obviously the theoretical system wins here, but it sidesteps the biggest problem that people do not handle power well.

Re: Disney's earliest Mickey Mouse enters public domain as US copyright expires

#133

Post by User23 »

gambiting wrote: post #16
londons_explore wrote: post #8

Disney now uses that 'steamboat willie' intro clip at the start of most of their stuff. Are they trying to use it as a trademark, and therefore use trademark law rather than copyright law to stop people using steamboat Willie publicly?

The Mickey Mouse head is literally the logo of the Disney corporation, it is and it will remain their trademark in perpetuity(or for as long as Disney exists). Trademarks are different than copyright - you can't start a company and use Mickey mouse as your logo for instance, because then the trademark law would kick in. But you can still make your own story/cartoon/film with Mickey Mouse the character and it should b…

However if you advertise it in any way using Disney’s trademark expect to be sued and spend millions defending, even if you wouldn’t eventually be found to be infringing (which you won’t because you’ll run out of money long before that question gets in front of a judge or jury).

Re: Disney's earliest Mickey Mouse enters public domain as US copyright expires

#134

Post by User23 »

andsoitis wrote: post #84
CuriouslyC wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

John Oliver started baiting them a while back... https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2023/04/john-oliver-dar... .

And nothing happened, right?

Parody has a much lower bar to hop over. Disney isn’t suing people over mouse rule 34 either (at least not that I’m aware of).

Re: Disney's earliest Mickey Mouse enters public domain as US copyright expires

#135

Post by User23 »

dkjaudyeqooe wrote: post #22
londons_explore wrote: post #8

Disney now uses that 'steamboat willie' intro clip at the start of most of their stuff. Are they trying to use it as a trademark, and therefore use trademark law rather than copyright law to stop people using steamboat Willie publicly?

Trademark law only stops someone else using the character to represent themselves as Disney, or where is might cause confusion around that. A simple prominent disclaimer can fix that. That's assuming Disney could ever register the trademark, which is not a given, no matter how often they use it.

> A simple prominent disclaimer can fix that.

Disney can and will allege that the disclaimer fails to prevent confusion and take you to court regardless. And then you have a legal battle to prove that it does “fix that.” A legal battle that will cost you millions of dollars and years of your life, neither of which you will get back even if you win.

Re: Disney's earliest Mickey Mouse enters public domain as US copyright expires

#138

Post by vt85 »

coliveira wrote: post #119
buran77 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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" strat…

This is exactly why "democracy" and "capitalism" are impossible to fully exist side by side. Capitalism rules necessarily destroy democracy because its basis is the accumulation of money and power by a few. On the other hand, perfect democracy will give people the power to remove the money privilege of the few through taxes and policies (the founding founders already knew this). The idea that we have democracy in a c…

[dead]

Re: Disney's earliest Mickey Mouse enters public domain as US copyright expires

#139

Post by bee_rider »

mod50ack wrote: post #73
echelon wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As someone who works in the field What's your read on what's going to happen with AI? Will companies be allowed to train on copyrighted works? Seems like we'll fall behind international competition or supercharge monopolies if we don't allow it. Japan and China permit training on copyrighted works. China goes a step further and allows AI outputs to be copyrighted. Really interested in what insiders think or know ab…

Well, to be clear, I am mainly a public domain and copyright theory guy. I do keep up to date with everything here. But I also don't write laws; if I did, they would look different. Companies are allowed to train on copyrighted works - or, to be more precise, there is no prohibition in copyright law on them doing so. On the other hand, there are no particular protections. The real question is to what extent an AI gen…

“Find me a prompt to generate this image,” seems like an interesting problem to toss at an AI, I wonder if anyone knows of work in that direction?

Hypothetically if such a system existed where you passed in a copyright image, and then got a prompt to generate it, would that be sufficient to show some kind infringement?

Re: Disney's earliest Mickey Mouse enters public domain as US copyright expires

#140

Post by CaptainFever »

vlovich123 wrote: post #108
ourmandave wrote: post #106

OG Winnie the Pooh is public, but his iconic Red Vest version is still under copyright. https://www.romanolaw.com/winnie-the-pooh-blood-and-honey-is...

But tigger has now entered the public domain.

    The Wonderful thing about Tiggers
    Is Tiggers are wonderful things
    Tops are made out of rubber
    Their bottoms are made out of springs
    Their bouncey, trouncey, ouncey, pouncey
    Fun, fun, fun, fun, fun
    But the most wonderful thing about Tiggers
    Is I'm the only one!
The last line is especially ironic considering the copyright monopoly situation.
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