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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

#141

Post by gjsman-1000 »

mod50ack wrote: post #56
weinzierl wrote: post #29

Before 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.

> Before people cheer too much, surprisingly works can retroactively be snatched back from the public domain and go back into copyrighted state. The United States is decidedly not going to extend copyright terms. The US only very reluctantly pulled works out of the public domain after it joined the Berne Convention in 1989. The reason ''Metropolis'' was in the public domain was because it failed to comply with renewa…

I think the biggest Rubicon for Disney coming up will be losing Snow White in 2032, assuming no renewal.

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

#142

Post by hedora »

Aloha wrote: post #130
mod50ack wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

What would your ideal copyright regime look like? Mine would be different than what we have now, it'd be 20 years or artists lifetime, whichever is shorter - then 10 year long renewals are possible after that, but the cost of the renewal would ratchet up with each renewal. I've also considered using a percentage of revenue for the work - basically a tax on the revenue from that work, as a condition for the right of m…

Disney regularly censors or modifies classic films in its catalog, and also simply pulls things out of production. If you want to read more, look up the Disney Vault strategy.

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

#143

Post by Solvency »

weinzierl wrote: post #29

Before 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.

Just curious...why would anyone here cheer? Have HNers been desperate to launch their own Mickey Mouse novelty tee Etsy stores for years?

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

#144

Post by direwolf20 »

Caligatio wrote: post #31
weinzierl wrote: post #29

Before 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…

The copyright owners persuaded other countries to make copyright very long, then persuaded the USA to fall in line with other countries.

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

#145

Post by speedgoose »

cool_dude85 wrote: post #112
8organicbits wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh, I have two young children. No idea what those are. We use Disney Plus almost exclusively for Bluey and Frozen. Is that also Disney Plus?

Stay away if possible, especially clubhouse which does the "the characters talk to the child and ask them questions" thing that I personally hate. But yes, at least in the US they're all on plus.

Those shows aren’t very good to say the least compared to Bluey.

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

#147

Post by hedora »

BeFlatXIII wrote: post #95
mod50ack wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Before people cheer too much, surprisingly works can retroactively be snatched back from the public domain and go back into copyrighted state. The United States is decidedly not going to extend copyright terms. The US only very reluctantly pulled works out of the public domain after it joined the Berne Convention in 1989. The reason ''Metropolis'' was in the public domain was because it failed to comply with renewa…

> Essentially, other countries threatened trade deals if the US made terms dependent on formalities for non-US works. So the law was changed and copyrights were restored. Congress should have grown a spine and called their bluff rather than sell out the American public like that.

You’re talking about the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act aka the Mickey Mouse Protection Act?

Claiming that was due to foreign pressure was just scapegoating / misdirection from its supporters.

The US forced all sorts of copyright extensions on the international community back then (including DMCA-style DRM protections).

The support section of the Wikipedia page lists the main lobbyists for the bill. They are all US based, and Disney started lobbying for it in 1990 (the year after the US was brought into compliance with the Berne convention).

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Term_Extension_Act

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

#148

Post by abirch »

est31 wrote: post #117
mod50ack wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Before people cheer too much, surprisingly works can retroactively be snatched back from the public domain and go back into copyrighted state. The United States is decidedly not going to extend copyright terms. The US only very reluctantly pulled works out of the public domain after it joined the Berne Convention in 1989. The reason ''Metropolis'' was in the public domain was because it failed to comply with renewa…

The USA often ignores the international community in many things, if the right domestic interest groups are behind it. It's just that currently the USA has powerful domestic companies/interests that are against copyright term extensions, which are more powerful than the (also quite powerful) companies in favour of term extensions. In the past decade, the USA also has tried to spread the new extended period over the w…

What are the powerful domestic companies/interests who are against the copyright terms? I always viewed copyright extensions as being good for the masses but bad for corporations (the copyright holders)

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

#149

Post by zogrodea »

pasiaj wrote: post #46
coldlight wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I think this is one of those cases where representative democracy diverges from democracy proper.

I doubt most people (who lack a financial incentive, unlike some politicians) will incline towards copyright extensions for companies.

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