Mickey Mouse Enters the Public Domain Transcript

Today isn’t just the start of the new year, it is also when copyright protections expire on a number of well-known books, films and also musical compositions.

As well as the original version of a very famous mouse, CBS 2’s Jo Ling Kent has the story.

95 years after the 1928 animated short Steamboat Willie made its debut, this Minnie and Mickey will enter the public domain. That means the House of Mouse won’t be the only one who can use images of the iconic rodents.

This is the culmination in real time of what I call a love triangle between Mickey, Disney and the public domain.

Duke Professor Jennifer Jenkins specializes in intellectual property.

The poster child, for just how valuable the public domain is probably Walt Disney, if you think about all of their beloved, wonderful films that are based on public domain works. But at the same time, Disney is also a figurehead for the diminishment of the public domain because of their support for a copyright term extension.

Disney and other companies pushed Congress to pass copyright extensions in the 1990s, delaying Mickey’s emergence into the public sphere. But there’s an important caveat, only Mickey and Minnie’s black and white Steamboat Willie versions can now be used in new creative works, not the more familiar, colorful renditions that came after. What are the limitations? What are you not allowed to do?

You cannot use the characters in a way that misleads consumers into thinking that Disney has produced or sponsored your product.

A case in point, Winnie the Pooh.

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One test of an icon going out to the public whose original literary work lost its protection two years ago, and that led to this, Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey.

Blood and Honey was buzzworthy because of the shock value, because it grossed people out, but in the long run, our culture gets to decide what kinds of public domain reuses have enduring appeal.

Over the years, many other characters have entered the public domain without much fanfare, including Tarzan, Sherlock Holmes and even Frankenstein’s monster.

We’ve got Donald Duck. We’ve got Superman. We’ve got Batman. We’ve also got movies such as The Wizard of Oz. We have a lot of wonderful works and a lot of forgotten works going into the public domain in the next few years.

A thrilling new frontier for these pioneers of entertainment. Jo Ling Kent, CBS News, Los Angeles.

Oh, but there is more. Tigger has joined his Pooh Bear in the land of public domain. The character first appeared in the House at Pooh Corner. That copyright expired today. Other notable works now in the public domain include the play Peter Pan, the Agatha Christie novel, The Mystery of the Blue Train, and the music and lyrics for Cole Porter’s Let’s Do It, Let’s Fall in Love.

Oh, well, let’s turn to First Alert Weather so I can forget that that Blood and Honey movie was over made. That was very upsetting.