Adam Ruins Everything - How Mickey Mouse Destroyed the Public Domain 

Deadmau5 the DJ got sued by Disney for having a helmet that allegedly looked like Mickey Mouse. Ya... Disney lost that one too.

Fun fact: there is actually a company in Paraguay that uses Mickey Mouse's image as the face of their products. And if you're thinking that's just because Disney probably doesn't know about it, here's the thing: they do and they tried to sue the company. Best part? Disney actually LOST the case and that company continues to use Mickey's face in their products just out of spite

And people complain pirating is the biggest issue

Who's watching this in 2024. When Mickey Mouse finally entered Public Domain and Disney finally couldn't Stop it.

Folklores, myths, fairytales, and stories of the ancient past: *exist* Disney: "hippity hoppity, that's now my property!"

If Disney hadn't held on to Mickey Mouse, Batman and Superman would both be in public domain. So it's disneys fault that Batman isn't in the MCU.

This is why Steamboat Willie being Public Domain is great. We can finally give that mouse the treatment they deserve after making it hard for all of us

1:06 I want them to make out. Shippers: We have taught him well.

Romeo and Juliet *_TOKYO DRIFT_*

I'd just like to point out that Walt Disney had been dead for decades when the Disney Company lobbied for changing the copyright laws.

I remember when disney tried to copyright a holiday. It showed how power hungry that company is.

After seeing Disney deny a grieving family of engraving spider man on their deceased son’s grave, this video speaks to me. Heck, I’ve always had a feeling that Disney was one of the main factors that made copyright such a pain in the ass

Ah, Disney! Making the legal system work in it's favor since the late 90s!

"I want them to make out!" AND SO FAN FICTION WAS BORN!!!

Came back to say that we won, Steamboat Willie Mickey is now in the public domain

One thing that people often forget, copyright laws in USA used to have a renewal option, copyright lasted 28 years, but you could ask for 28 more, most people didn't come back to renew because they either died or didn't care, this allowed older works of media that are still being used and are still making money to keep being protected by copyright, while media works that are not being used for anything and aren't making any money to be free for everyone to use. When Disney and other movie and music companies wanted longer copyrights, instead of asking for the option of renewing twice or thrice, they killed the renewal option, it means that even media works that are in risk of becoming lost media due to being out of distribution are still copyrighted for 95 years.

Copyright is such a mess, just like in RU-vid

Of course it did bite Disney in the ass, because MGM still owns the copyrights to their Wizard of Oz adaptation, which means that every time Disney does a version of the Wizard of Oz, they can't make it look too similar to the MGM version, which pisses Disney off. Yet when a school did a version of Beauty and the Beast that looked too similar to the Disney version, Disney threatened to sue them. Hypo-hypocritical.

1:38 fear not Mickey your free now

« I want them to make out » « Ooh yeah let’s see that » *Welcome to Rule 34*

Hercules shouldn't be copyrighted because he's a mythological figure. Even Thor shouldn't be copyrighted for the same reason. That's like copyrighting the Great Spirit in Native American mythology, or wendigos.

That kid just proved that you're never too young to be a shipper.

Mickey is so iconic that even if he went public domain, Disney could still be recognized as the original creator. THAT is what copyright was for. Also, this is what happens in a capitalist system where a corporation outlives its founder.

Well Mickey is in the public domain now folks, although it’s not the modern version which we will wait 11 years to get there, truly a time to wait.

1:10 Jekyll and Hyde are making out.... Is that narcissism?

Hypo-hypo-hypo-hypocritical!

Adam Ruins Everything: Nothing will enter the Public Domain until 2019 Artist in 2018: ONE MORE YEAR

Good news. Mickey Mouse will be in the public domain in 2024.

SOO basically Walt Disney was the kid on the play playground that wanted to keep his toys and yours even when he put them down

Planning on making an animated franchise somewhere down the line. Before I die, I'm going to make sure that my characters cross into the public domain.

You thought that was bad. mention: *_ARTICLE 13_*

Let me fix the title. "How Disney Destroyed The Public Domain."

Everything from the 30s to the 60s should already be in the public domain by now according to public domain laws before disney was involved. Which includes spiderman and probably a ton of other older marvel characters. We desperately need a repeal on disney change of copyright law.

Anyone else watching this clip after Mickey entered the public domain

One correction I want to make: Steamboat Willie was originally supposed to enter public domain in 1984, not 1998. in 1976 (10 years after Walt died) the Disney company extended the 1984 date more years to 1998.

And with all their remakes, they're at it again. Everyone's busy being mad about the casting, and I'm over here like "our overlord has found a way to extend their copyright again!!" Smh

The sad thing is that Disney didn't have to do it. Characters don't get copyrighted, stories, songs and other works do. Characters exist under trademark, which lasts as long as someone uses a character. It was the cartoon Steamboat Willie that was going to enter the public domain. A cartoon that no one would really want to rip off today anyway.

Thankfully, the copyright extension act ended in 2019, so now stuff can enter the public domain again. Oh, and also, there was this court case where a guy tried to claim rights to a picture a monkey took with his camera, but since the monkey was the one who took the photo, it _technically_ isn't his. So they ruled that any photo taken by an animal immediately falls in the public domain. Look it up.

*and now they kill star wars , pixar AND their own classic movies with 'real life remakes'... good job*

Disney can’t stop us now, Steamboat Willie is finally public domain

Just to clarify, Adam is referring to -Walt- Disney the company, not the man who made Mickey. This a simple case of corporate greed. Also, isn't the copyright law 75 years before entering public domain?

This is the main reason why we can't use fan characters

Anyone else here to talk about how Mikey can now be seen launching himself off the ground by having projectile diarrhea, and Disney can’t sue?

Guess what! Mickey is finally in the public domain

If they want Mickey Mouse, I don't see that much problem with it. But did they have to get such a chokehold on him that we can't even say his name on RU-vid without Disney lawyers taking all our content away?

. they always find a way to change the laws for their own interest :(

When I was a lad I corrected four dozen misconceptions every morning to help me get large. And now that I'm grown I correct five dozen misconceptions so I'm roughly the size of a barge.

Mark your calendars, boys and girls! Mickey Mouse enters the public domain January 1st, 2024!!!

Because Mickey Mouse is the symbol of a still thriving company, it makes sense that Disney should continue to own that character. It gets out of hand when they get to protective, like the time they sued Deadmau5.

“I wanna make them make out” “Oooo yea let’s see that” 👌😂 amazing

The funny thing is that not every version of Mickey Mouse would be in the public domain. First it would be the rubberband version seen in the earlist days. Each time they redesigned him resets the copywrite, at least to that look of him. This is similar to how, let's say, Beauty and the Beast as a story is in the public domain, but make a movie that looks too much like Disney's version and they can sue or Wizard of Oz is in public domain, but make a version with ruby slippers and your in trouble (the real story has silver slippers), though there's another one that should be public domain too.

There's something really special knowing that Steamboat Willie, an example used at the very end of this video, is now in the Public Domain as of 2024.

That kid was a surprisingly good actor for his age

Now I want to see Adam Ruin Anime. Bring up the flaws of the anime industry.

I wish more people knew about this. Disney is basically everything that’s wrong with the entertainment industry today. And yes, that’s very ironic coming from someone who subscribes to Disney+….

Who’s here after Mickey entered public domain

Guys if more works entered the public domain, we would have more works such as RWBY and the Lunar Chronicles that have characters based off of fairy tales and of history. The public domain doesn't cause people to steal ideas but to expand or add on to them. Take the Red vs. Blue series as an example, Red vs. Blue is a show within the Halo universe but doesn't have characters from the Halo series but are original and has it own story completely different from the main plot of the Halo series. Both generally share the concept of war and a special program involved in it but the approaches are different. I'm pretty sure the Halo series are NOT in the public domain but the company, Bungie allowed the company Rooster Teeth, the ones who created the Red vs. Blue series to continue. That's what the public domain is supposed to do; it provides a foundation for artists, authors, and scientists to use to input their creativity or version onto an existing work as long they don't copy or steal directly from the original work. Warm Bodies, Gnomeo and Juliet, West Side Story are retellings of Romeo and Juliet RWBY, the Lunar Chronicles, Once Upon a Time are adaptations of fairytales in different settings The Percy Jackson and the Heroes of Olympus series were based off of Greek and Roman gods along with their history Because new work hasn't entered the public domain, many were force to be original as possible to prevent legal battles forcing those to be very protective of their work, believing their work is being copied off. There had been so many ridiculous legal battles in recent years like with that lady who sued Disney for believing that they copied from her book to make Frozen, even though the only similarities were generally vague and basic things like how both involved sisters. I understand if people don't want others ruining their work but its not just original concepts but also music and scientific research that aren't allowed in the public hands and can't be used, especially scientific research, if we fix the problem.

"I want them to make out." Absolutely yes.

Today is January 2nd 2024. Yesterday, Mickey Mouse entered the public domain after 95 years. So basically, this video is shitposting me.

January 1st, 2023 is public domain day. Sherlock Holmes is finally free, the biggest contribution is something that was already in the public domain, but now Arthur Conan Doyle's State can't grasp at straws, we also get Metropolis and The Jazz Singer. And the perfect song for this day, "The Best Things in Life Are Free", is now free.

rich people and politicians ruin everything

1:07 IT'S FANFUCTION! RUN!!!

2:04 It's 2019 now Disney. BRING BACK THE PUBLIC DOMAIN! Edit: 69 LIKES!?

Why public domain is a fair law: - In several countries, copyright only ends after the creator of the work has died, and if it is a company, it takes 70 to 95 years to end, by then the company has already closed, and if it exists, everyone who worked on the company back then has died. - Things like music, characters, stories, these are all just ideas, things in people's heads, you can't own an idea like owning something physical like a car or a house, if you make a song, and another person starts singing this song, that person didn't steal anything from you, nothing was taken from you. - Copyright is not being the owner of the work, it's just being the owner of an exclusivity to copy, share and make public exhibitions, if you write a book, you don't own the combination of words, they have to pay you to make copies or adapt to a movie, but you can't go to stores that already have the books and force them to take them off the shelves, much less go to the homes of the people who bought the book and force them to have the books returned. - Ideas cannot belong to one person forever, ideas have to be copied, expanded and improved, imagine if someone invented the cure for cancer, but kept the patent forever? The cancer problem would not be solved, a patent only gives exclusivity to the creator to become rich for about 20 years, then everyone can make the cure as well, with works of art, copyright lasts until the person dies. - Even after LEGO lost the patent on the invention of LEGO blocks and a lot of copies appeared, they are still the market leaders, public domain does not prevent people and companies from using their creations, it just takes away the exclusivity. - Copyright was created to encourage creativity, but with copyright lasting so long, it's holding back creativity, companies like Disney, Warner, Universal and Viacom own so many things that they don't need to create anything new, that's why Hollywood no longer invests in films with original ideas and only makes adaptations, sequels, remakes and reboots. - It's impossible to create something 100% original, everything has to be based on something that already exists, in a world without public domain, we would eventually get in an era where it wouldn't be possible to create anything without violating someone's copyright, a world where ideas cannot be copied would not be more creative, it would be less creative. - There are several orphan works, they say that if you want to use something that someone else made, pay the artist to use it, but there are cases where the artist has disappeared, you can't find him to pay a license, they don't know if he's alive or dead, or if he died, they can't find his family, and when companies go bankrupt, they sell all their works to pay the debts, and it is often difficult to know who the current owner is, the buyer may even have gone bankrupt too. - Copyright became a mess, several companies are using it to censor people, and copyright rarely benefits the true creator of the work instead of the company that hired the creator, copyright lasting less would be a good idea to reduce this mess. - Of course, companies like Disney and several others, keep taking stories from the public domain to adapt to movies, series and other stuff, and even put restrictions when people adapt these stories so they don't take things from their versions, but their original creations, they don't want them to go into the public domain.

Bambi and Winnie the Pooh are now in the public domain. But you can only use the original book versions, the Disney movies are still copyrighted.

Wait you couldn't copyright hercules hes from greek mythology

0:43 No wonder why there are so many adaptations of Oz, Hercules, Robin Hood, Jungle Book, Cinderella, Tarzan, Pinocchio, and Alice. As a kid, I always thought that the Disney versions of those characters were the ONLY adaptations. But when I grew up, I learned more.

This hits me like an essay without a concluding paragraph

"I want them to make out" *sees King Midas on top of Moby Dick's forehead kissing him*

1:07 "I want them to make out" Literally everyone: e x c u s e m e w u t

This aged like fine wine

Watching this in 2024 looking back is a surrel experience.

"I want them to make out!" That took a hilarious fanfic turn!

The ironic thing is Walt Disney would probably hate this kind of abuse of copyright. He was screwed over and got his copyright stolen too.

Hopefully in 2024 Mickey Mouse should finally enter the Public Domain.

And now finally Mickey Mouse has entered the public domain!

There is something that he forgot to mention during this video is that Mickey Mouse, like all major Disney characters, is also trademarked, which lasts in perpetuity as long as it continues to be used commercially by its owner.

We need to reform Copyright....

2024 BABY!!!

What also is part of public domain: World Mythologies, Religious scriptural lore & figures, & “The Lost World” to name a few.

Now my 9 year-old cousin knows why I hate the fact that he dragged me into viewing, "Finding Dumbass"

Can you ruin school plz

The thing is to also discuss the difference between copyright and trademark. The Max Fletcher Superman cartoons are public domain I can put them on my RU-vid channel and even monetize them if I wanted to but... If I try to make Superman merchandise and sell it or create a continuing adventures of Superman based on Max factor's work then I'd be violating Warner Bros trademark.

2 charecters in a cartoon: hates each other. Fanfiction and forums: 1:07

Come on Adam. Calling Frankenstein's Monster "Frankenstein"?

To be fair: if the original reason for the 50 year limit was to ensure a lifetime of royalties for creators, then it does make sense for an extended period of time, given the dramatically increased average life span of Americans over the past century. Of course, Walt was long gone by the time this all went down.

2024 and the Original Mickey Mouse is public domain but not newer versions of the character.

Watching this in 2024 when Steamboat Willie entered the public domain thus making an early version of Mickey Mouse public domain is so ironic!

Corporations can hoard copyrighted intellectual properties because they can theoretically exist forever. They might not die. And that's why a corporation is NOT a person!

I might need more DJ OinkZ in my life...

He feel like that guy would have the perfect voice for a random bird

Bro they said that no work has gotten into the public domain until 2019 when this video was uploaded in 2015

Goddamn it disney !! is there no end to your evil!?

1:07 What he said had me dying bro. 😂

Today Mickey Mouse isn’t protected!!!

That hooded figure should have looked more like Michael Eisner because he was the one who's running Disney at the time.

I'm going to do such a great remake of this video in 2071.

I get that Disney would want to retain the rights to Mickey. They're still using him. The law worked well before corporations. Like they said in the video, the old law existed so that people would make enough profit during their lifetime. As for corporations, they can exist forever so their lifetime don't really enter in account. Instead of single rule for EVERY and ANY type of work, why can't it simply work like a contract that'd you have to renew? Every 50 years, you'd have to renew your claim if you wanted to. If you were dead and couldn't renew it, then that'd be that. That would allow corporations to keep using their work while at the same time freeing some lone artist or scientist's work to the public domain. That could be a nice compromise.

I remember there was a case in I want to say the late 80's or early 90's where a daycare/preschool in Orland had painted Disney characters on their walls and the Disney company found out and sent them legal documents demanding that their copyrighted characters be removed or they would take the owners to court. Universal got wind of the situation and since they had the rights to Hanna Barabara characters, contacted the owners and offered to hire professional painters to come in and have the two locations they owned repainted with Hanna Babara characters instead which the owners happily agreed.

Adam is the we need and deserve. We need smart and snarky knights like him in this country and in the world.