61–70 of 201 posts
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/
How do authors make a living by giving away all their work for free?
The mouse via Steamboat Willie is scheduled to enter public domain? Guess we can look forward to quite eventful three weeks before the end of the year, while Disney is frantically trying to prevent that outcome.
It's been obvious for a few years that Disney wasn't going to pursue extending copyright anymore. It would have been politically difficult at any point in the last few years as the Senate does so little.
Of course, both times, comments were pretty incredulous that Disney would prevent Steamboat Willie from going public domain. And now we're 3 weeks from that happening, and 1 week from the US House planning to go on recess, and there's no sign of any bill that would extend copyright further. People who pay attention will note that Disney has seemed to prepare for Steamboat Willie going public domain: part of the short now appears as part of their film logo in movies, presumably to enable them to claim it as trademark and sue anyone who tries to upload it into oblivion. Nevertheless, I fully expect quite a few people to do stuff like upload Steamboat Willie to Youtube in January, and it will be interesting to see what the response of that is.
The mouse via Steamboat Willie is scheduled to enter public domain? Guess we can look forward to quite eventful three weeks before the end of the year, while Disney is frantically trying to prevent that outcome.
Disney spent the last decade or so growing their business (through large acquisitions) to where Mickey is now just small fraction of their worth. So they likely don't really care anymore. Plus it's only the old, old design of Mickey, not the current version they have been using for awhile that looks more normal to most people these days.
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.
Agatha Christie, W.E.B. DuBois, Evelyn Waugh, Nabokov, D.H. Lawrence, H.G. Wells, Virginia Woolf, and A.A. Milne all have books entering in 2024.
And a Brecht play (The Threepenny Opera - one of his best, at that), and a Eugene O'Neill (Strange Interlude)!
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/
How do authors make a living by giving away all their work for free?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
How do authors make a living by giving away all their work for free?
A book in the public domain can be sold, so probably by selling books. Or other jobs. This seems really interesting to me as someone who does not write books full time.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's my understanding that they still retain a lot of control over Mickey Mouse indefinitely because he is trademarked as the face of their company.
There's a distinction between trademark and copyright, and the ability to imply a Disney source and to include Mickey in your work are not controlled in the same way. Using the 1928 Mouse in your work while making it clear your work doesn't originate with Disney wouldn't violate trademark law.
In short nobody but a crazy person or someone with a real deep artistic need that absolutely required that version of Mickey to work would ever pursue it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Meanwhile, to keep this at-best modestly interesting historical film locked up Well, it's not just the film, it's also everything in it, including (that design of) the characters themselves. When that enters the public domain, anyone can use (that design of) those characters for any purpose, including in their own works that have nothing to do with the Steamboat film. I can go make a platforming video game ala Cuph…
I would be unsurprised Disney has skeletal outlines of lawsuits in place already asserting that uses of Mickey Mouse from Steamboat Willie in an unrelated video game or something violates their trademark, and are just waiting to fill in the blank for the first person audacious enough to do it. I kind of expect them to win that. But maybe they won't. Still, I wouldn't touch Mickey with anything less than the metaphori…
Okay, yeah that's fair. Thinking strictly about copyright, I think what I said is true, but you're right there's other IP law at play here.
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/
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/
How do authors make a living by giving away all their work for free?
Someone who spends years perfecting a recipe has no similar protections, yet they've certainly done work. Their options for making money off of it comes from maybe associated works, or a restaurant, or hiding the recipe. Maybe authors will have to read works out loud? Create different types of value in a world where we will have AI generating stories en masse?