What will enter the public domain in 2024?

Post by PickledHotdog » Wed, Dec 13, 2023, 1:42 PM UTC

runarberg wrote: post #177

furyofantares wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was shocked to learn my 7yo daughter associates Disney with Mickey and Minnie. She's watched like one Mickey cartoon on Disney+, and she's seen way more Disney stuff than that. Never been to Disneyland. But somehow to her, Disney === Mickey/Minnie. Branding is wild stuff.

Where I grew up Donald Duck magazines were super popular (this was during Don Rosa so they were quite good as well). I got a magazine delivered weekly. I remember being a kid and always skipping the Micky Mouse stories as they were always really boring. First I would read all the Donald Duck and Scrooge McDuck stories, then I would read the weird stories (like Goofy [but only if it didn’t involve Micky], Chip ‘n’ Dal…

Post by jerf » Wed, Dec 13, 2023, 3:01 PM UTC

jcranmer wrote: post #73

jerf wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's almost the most infuriating thing about their copyright grabs; it hardly even gets them anything of interest. They're not making any money on the actual Steamboat Willie movie. We're still a ways away from anything of even modest commercial interest from Disney entering the public domain, and even when Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs does finally come into public domain, I can't imagine it meaningfully affects…

> even when Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs does finally come into public domain, I can't imagine it meaningfully affects their bottom line. Given that Disney is infamous for its practice of rereleasing its older films periodically and otherwise making them completely unavailable (the "Disney Vault"), it seems that they have a business model which is fully predicated on copyright exclusivity.

Post by sirodoht » Wed, Dec 13, 2023, 7:42 PM UTC

Zambyte wrote: post #59

sirodoht wrote: post #56

What if we didn't wait for things to enter the public domain but instead they were born right into it? I have started a book publishing company that publishes new, public domain books only: https://laniakeabooks.org/

This is fantastic. I want to know: how do you plan to sustain this? Donations?

Post by BizarroLand » Wed, Dec 13, 2023, 10:49 PM UTC

tga_d wrote: post #179

dkjaudyeqooe wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> could claim you're violating their copyright on their bumper That's not how it works, the use of Steamboat Willy in the bumper and public domain use just share the same source material, and Disney can't claim copyright on that source material since they no longer own it. Someone would have to copy the actual bumper to make it copyright infringement.

They presumably meant trademark, not copyright. I.e., if you use Steamboat Willie in anything that Disney could plausibly make with Steamboat Willie, they could argue that the character isn't being used as a character, but to imply endorsement by Disney, violating the trademark.

Post by Zambyte » Thu, Dec 14, 2023, 1:31 PM UTC

sirodoht wrote: post #195

Zambyte wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is fantastic. I want to know: how do you plan to sustain this? Donations?

In the last 6 months, I have published two books on my "free time" while working a full-time job. It wasn't unsustainable, just a bit more busy. I might even do it again in the next 6 months! Essentially: it's rare that people want to publish books and dedicate them to the public domain. People who write a lot are writers who make a living from writing and they write on Substack, for newspapers, large publishing hous…