Ask Lemmy

use Steamboat Willy in some content because they can

"Fuck you, Disney! Look what I can do now" *makes armpit fart noises*

If you look what happened with pooh I'm guessing we may see the same thing happen here. There will definitely be testing of the waters on what people can do

Saw ONE design of the character on Twitter that actually made for an interesting idea that could be expanded upon, there IS space for someone to do smth cool about it but I honestly don't think anyone will. Hey, Toontown Rewritten could model this Mickey and use it for something I guess.

I foresaw the trademark thing and so have many others. But that doesn't restrict as much as the recently-expired copyright does. Mostly the continuing trademark means that one can't use the Steamboat Willie Mickey Mouse in a way that misleads people that your own work is by Disney.

About the thing about Disney claiming that because they used Steamboat Willie Mickey in more recent woks they can still claim copyright protections on elements of Mickey Mouse that were a thing in Steamboat Willie, I really don't think copyright works like that.

All that said, Disney has a rabid legal team and lots of experience at lobbying congress. Who knows what they're capable of. It's possible they'd try to pull some major fast one and make copyright and/or trademark work differently than they do today.

In 2013 Walt Disney Animation Studios released a theatrical short called “Get a Horse!” which features 1920s era Mickey complete with archival audio of Walt as Mickey (and others who voiced him then) as well as renditions of other classic era Disney characters including Minnie, Pete, Horace, and Oswald. Heck, even the logo for WDAS in that sort is Mickey whistling in Steamboat Willie.

It’s a pretty decent short too, even if you know nothing about Disney. And it played before Frozen in the cinema, 4th highest-grossing animation of all time.

I remember at the time thinking whether they might be doing it to try and protect their rights. I’m no lawyer though.

Didn’t they make a Steamboat Willie Lego set in the last few years? That renew it?

Well the copyright has expired, there's no defending it afaik. People can use it even if Disney is using it afaik.

Trademark is more like logos. It will be interesting to see what they will try to defend under it.