this post was submitted on 12 Dec 2023

92 points (91.1% liked)

News

23367 readers

3929 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil

Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.

2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.

Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.

3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.

Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.

4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.

Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.

5. Only recent news is allowed.

Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.

6. All posts must be news articles.

No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.

7. No duplicate posts.

If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.

8. Misinformation is prohibited.

Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.

9. No link shorteners.

The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.

10. Don't copy entire article in your post body

For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

When will Mickey Mouse enter the public domain? (www.deseret.com)

submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

18 comments fedilink hide all child comments

This iconic mouse is weeks away fromn being in the public domain Jan. 1, 2024, is the day when 'Steamboat Willie' enters the public domain

top 18 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] [email protected] 32 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Additionally, even though the copyright is expiring, the trademark is not.

“You can use the Mickey Mouse character as it was originally created to create your own Mickey Mouse stories or stories with this character,” Daniel Mayeda, associate director of the Documentary Film Legal Clinic at UCLA School of Law, told The Guardian. “But if you do so in a way that people will think of Disney — which is kind of likely because they have been investing in this character for so long — then in theory, Disney could say you violated my trademark.”

😕

[–] [email protected] 21 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Which they will do. Immediately and with the force of a thousand suns.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Disney loves them some lawsuits.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

they can't sue every r34 artist haha

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago

They don't give a shit about any R34 artist. They'll give a lot of shit if you start to make money, or diminish their brand in any measurable way - aka become popular enough to affect public opinion.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Just draw Mickey Mouse and caption it "This is Pikachu."

[–] [email protected] 16 points 11 months ago

"Ceci n'est pas une Mickey Mouse"

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago (1 children)

So when are we getting a dark Mickey? The dark Winnie The Pooh came out pretty fast after that copyright expired...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

https://youtu.be/av3K-PEEF1c

[–] [email protected] 16 points 11 months ago

[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Disney originally fought Steamboat Willie becoming public domain via Sonny Bono because it was the home video era and it meant that anyone could sell VHS tapes with Steamboat Willie on them. It's no longer really relevant and Mickey is still trademarked, so they don't have much of a reason to fight it at this point.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

No reason to fight it? How about keeping Mickey locked behind copyright to be sold and licensed for another generation? Maybe not as popular as it once was, but it's one remake away from being a new smash hit again.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Mickey is already trademarked. That is not necessary.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Copyright is broken, but I am not sure how to fix it. I would shorten the term substantially but then extend it when new works are created. That way Disney could own the mouse forever. But as soon as they stop creating new shows with the character it enters the public domain quickly.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

The fix is easy. It's already in the constitution. A 14yr initial term, then one 14 yr optional extension. That's it. You can profit from your good idea for 30 yrs, the good idea the culture around you helped ferment, then every one else our nation can share in it, enriching us all.

Thats the compromise the founders made between society and inventors when it took 6 months for a letter to travel across an ocean. With instant information access, copyright lasting for 140yr (lifetime of creator + 70yrs) and counting makes zero fucking sense.

Disney loses an iron grip on mickey mouse? Good. Gives others a chance to create wonders with an old idea, a character that is far past part of everyone's cultureal heritage. A charector that should not be constrained to one entity forever. The exact same way disney used someone elses fairy tales to create its wealth, we should be able to use the fairy tales they created nearly 100 yrs ago.

If they need more money, they can keep innovating. Hitting gold in 1936 should not carry on into 2023.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It’s already in the constitution.

the us constitution does not set copyright length. it grants congress the power to guarantee to persons exclusive right to their work for a limited time.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Good catch. The 14 + 14yrs is actually in the copyright act of 1790, which was signed into law by president George Washington.

Still, being that it was agreed upon in the 1st ever US congress and signed by the first ever US president, I think its pretty easy to find the founders intent for copyright law.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

You're thinking of trademarks, which require an ongoing usage in order to maintain.

Copyright and patent have limited terms in order to achieve their intended purpose, which is to advance the arts. If you create something new, you get a monopoly on using it for a limited time. If you want to keep selling your art after that time, you have to make new art. This was more obvious when the copyright term was 14 years. Thanks in part to Disney, it's now become so long that I think it has the opposite effect. Big creators know they will have such a long monopoly--the lifetime of the author plus seventy more years--the incentive isn't to make new art, but to reuse existing art. Fuck Disney.