In the United States, January 1 every year is not only the beginning of the new year, but also the time when old literary, musical and artistic works enter the public domain.
This means that the copyright of some artistic works is no longer protected and has officially become the cultural wealth of all mankind.
's list this year includes a heavyweight animated character - Mickey Mouse.
(Mickey Mouse, picture from BBC)
In 1928, the animated short film "Steamboat Willie" was broadcast, and Mickey Mouse (Mickey) was born.
Nearly a hundred years later, Mickey has become one of the most famous IPs in the world. The fields include movies, TV series, merchandise, theme parks...
helped Disney create hundreds of billions of dollars in wealth.
(Mickey’s evolution history, pictures from the Internet)
In order to keep this little mouse that can only lay golden eggs, Disney has thought of many ways.
Originally, the image of Mickey Mouse in "Steamboat Willie" should have entered the public domain in 1984, but Disney continued to lobby and pushed the U.S. Congress to pass the 1976 Copyright Act, making "Steamboat Willie" public domain. transformation was postponed to 2004.
In 1998, Disney once again promoted the implementation of the "Royalty Period Extension Act" and postponed public ownership until today, a full 40 years later than originally scheduled.
Therefore, some people call the Royalty Term Extension Act of 1998 the "Mickey Mouse Protection Act."
(schematic)
Now, Disney has finally revealed the image of Mickey Mouse in "Steamboat Willie".
This is not because Disney is open-minded, but mainly because if it continues to be postponed like this, the gains outweigh the losses...
But netizens don't care about this. Over the years, Mickey Mouse has been like a toy that has been shelved. Netizens want to make fun of it, but they don't. Worried that the "most powerful legal department on the surface" will come to your door.
Now everyone is finally liberated...
In the past two days, netizens have begun to post Mickey Mouse memes to experience the "thrill of humiliating a large company."
On January 1st, Mickey: "Public domain, here I come~"
(picture from Towards the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center.
(picture from x)
Mickey drives a boat to block the Suez Canal.
(picture from x)
Mickey was driving the Titan submarine and suffered an implosion.
(picture from They all finished...
(Picture from On the first day of the year, Mickey seems to have been sucked into a black hole where all moral integrity has been lost...
On this day, at 12:00 noon on January 1, 2024, Mickey Mouse entered the public domain.
(picture from , and compared to the spoofs made by netizens, the work of artists is even more amazing...
On the day Mickey entered the public domain, a terrifying video called "Mickey's Mouse Trap" appeared on YouTube movie trailer.
is about a woman who held a surprise birthday party in an amusement park. As a result, the screen turned and a projector played the scene from "Steamboat Willie",
(trailer screen, picture from youtube)
tight Then a knife-wielding murderer wearing a Mickey costume appeared, chasing the protagonist and his party...
(Trailer screen, picture from youtube)
Three lines of red characters appeared on the screen,
"A fun place, a place full of fun" A place for friends, a place to hunt."
According to the director, this is the first ever live-action Mickey Mouse comedy horror feature film.
(trailer screen, picture from youtube)
Coincidentally, another film director Steven Lamorte also announced that he will shoot the horror film "Steamboat Willie" this spring, about a sadistic rat who attacks a group of unsuspecting ferries. Stories of brutal abuse by passengers.
The director said that "Steamboat Willie" has brought joy to generations of people, but after tearing away the cloak of joy, the film also has great potential to bring fear to people...
(movie concept map, picture from x)
The movie circle is like this, and the gaming circle is not idle either. A company announced the launch of a horror game called "infestation: origins" . In the game, people need to face various evil and twisted versions of classic characters and urban legends. , including Mickey Mouse.
(game screenshot, picture from steam)
Seeing that childhood memories are about to turn into psychological shadows, netizens also complained:
When Disney executives saw that Mickey Mouse made 80 different mouse killer movies...
( The picture comes from From x)
But having said that, although Mickey Mouse is now popular on the Internet, it should be noted that only the Mickey Mouse in the first edition of "Steamboat Willie" belongs to the public domain.
(parody of Mickey Mouse allowed, picture from x)
In other words, other versions of Mickey Mouse are still protected by copyright.
Some netizens did not understand the situation and started issuing Mickey Mouse NTFs in order to make a lot of money.
(picture from (picture from
