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The “Steamboat Willie” cartoon featuring Mickey Mouse will enter the public domain in 2023 or earlier

Created by btrettel on 2016-09-12; known on 2024-01-02

  • btrettel estimated 40% on 2016-09-12
  • btrettel said “https://priceonomics.com/how-mickey-mouse-evades-the-public-domain/” on 2016-09-12
  • Matt estimated 5% on 2016-09-12
  • Michael Dickens estimated 15% on 2016-09-13
  • JoshuaZ said “Defined how? There are multiple Mickey properties. ” on 2016-09-13
  • btrettel said “The “Steamboat Willie” cartoon entering the public domain is generally accepted to mean “Mickey Mouse enters the public domain”.” on 2016-09-13
  • btrettel said “Note that Disney will still have a trademark for “Mickey Mouse”, but this would not prevent others from using the character with acknowledgement of the trademark if the character was in the public domain from what I understand. Could be wrong here.” on 2016-09-13
  • btrettel changed the deadline from “on 2024-01-01” and changed their prediction from “Mickey Mouse will enter the public domain in 2023 or earlier” on 2016-09-13
  • btrettel said “Changed the title to be more accurate. On reflection, I’m not a lawyer so I’m not sure about using the character as I said in the previous comment. But one certainly could use the “Steamboat Willie” film, and Disney has fought to avoid this.” on 2016-09-13
  • btrettel said “Seems that Google has an interest in opposing Disney and other similar corporations. I’m not so sure Disney will win this time. http://www.dailydot.com/via/google-disney-copyright-laws/” on 2016-09-13
  • themusicgod1 estimated 6% on 2016-09-14
  • btrettel said “Also, I read that Disney might have botched the original Steamboat Willie copyright registration, so it might not be under copyright right now. For this prediction let’s assume that they registered correctly, and the copyright is due to expire.” on 2016-09-14
  • PlacidPlatypus estimated 60% on 2016-09-15
  • penten estimated 40% on 2016-10-06
  • PlacidPlatypus estimated 85% and said “Disney is still powerful but I think there’s more public awareness of IP law and the importance of the public domain than there used to be. I’d be surprised if it got extended again at this point.” on 2020-10-21
  • finback estimated 10% and said “I’m seeing that the copyright is currently scheduled to expire 1/1/24. I think it’s very unlikely to happen earlier than scheduled” on 2020-10-25