Mickey Mouse Copyright Expires in 2023 - What Happens Next? 

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When Mickey’s in public domain, someone’s gonna make a horror movie about him.

I could see Disney finding a way to prolong it, They have money. Laws don't usually apply to really rich companies.

It won’t hurt Disney’s bottom line. It feels plenty of people have the wrong idea of what public domain means. If something goes into public domain, it literally gets archived and preserved, if it has not already been archived by an institution such as the American Film Institute, the AFI and public domain archives keep the legit copies preserved. Many works are totally lost due to the prolonged copyright terms. As for people making endless fanfilms, the reality is that psychologically, people will literally only choose one or a few when there are so many options. In the case of Disney and Mickey, there is so much psychological association in the public mind between Disney and Mickey that plenty of people will associate more with Disney putting something about Mickey out than any other random person doing that. In short, there is still a connection between Disney and Mickey to people, that isn’t going to disappear even with people making so many different works about Mickey Mouse, the many will individually be unprofitable. On top of that, even without public domain, Disney has the full Steamboat Willie and several other black and white Mickey Mouse short cartoons free to watch, they don’t charge you for it, they show it off as a free museum exhibit regarding the Walt Disney Company. Disney is fine, they have acquired other record profit IPs including Marvel Comics characters and Avatar that will keep them going as the top media company for a long time to come. The point of patents and IP is to encourage people and companies to innovate and make new products, but carrying such a long copyright term has proven counterproductive in that area thus far. Thanks for the video sir!

Disney's hold on Mickey Mouse is a gross abuse of copyright. Copyright laws are meant to protect the works of independent creators, not mega corps.

Do you know what this could mean? A proper Epic Mickey game AT LAST!!! This time based on the horrific but amazing concept art that was never used

I know Mickey Mouse is important to Disney, but copyright terms are much longer than they need to be and the purpose of copyrights is supposed to benefit the original creators, their companies and their estates.

Afterall, Disney's been using works that are in the public domain to create many films that have helped make them famous and successful such as Snow White, Pinocchio, Aladdin, The Jungle Book, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty And The Beast and others for most of their history.

Fun Fact: THREE Mickey cartoons Are already in the public domain! They are: "Minnie's Yooh-Hoo" "Mickey's Surprise Party" And "The Mad Doctor." That last one scared me when I was ten. 😅

THANK YOU for being upfront and straightforward about the government lobbying!! I see WAY too many people tend to dance around or just straight up *not mention* that aspect of this, and some even make it out to be a sad thing that the copyright (which they SHOULD NOT HAVE, because they had to bribe and possibly even exploit people to get it!) is expiring. Great video!!

I’m sure Disney will find a way to renew the copyright for the original Mickey Mouse.

I think it's wrong that copyrights last that long. I can understand 50 years... that's a good chunk of a person's lifetime but 95 goes far beyond a person's natural lifespan... especially since most copyrights are made by people 25+ years old. Great great great grand children shouldn't be profiting off that kind of stuff. There's also the point where you have to look at this realistically, how many people have to buy something before the public has the right to it. I should be able to download the music my grandparents loved for free. When something like that spans generations when does it become a property of a culture? Mickey Mouse has become a part of our culture and it has been bought over and over and over in hundreds of forms... it should be ours now.

Like always happens: Disney will use the tons of money they have to hire every lawyer in the galaxy to extend the change the copyright rules once again and keep Mickey and tons of other characters outside of public domain for another 30 years.

Honestly Disney just has too much power. I think it would be nice if Mickey Mouse became public domain because Disney just has way too much stuff and way too much going on for them. They just have so much control over everything and it would just be nice to see them for once have less control and to be taken down a peg. I mean even if they lose the copyright on the original Mickey Mouse I think they still have Donald Duck and Goofy anyways. I actually prefer Goofy over Mickey Mouse. I mean how much control does Disney need? They bought out the MCU which released what was one point the highest grossing film of all time in endgame, they bought LucasArts and own everything Star Wars related which is a huge deal. I think they have enough. Both ABC and Fox are owned by Disney and as far as I know Disney outright owns Pixar the greatest 3D animated film studio of them all so yeah I think it would be nice to see Disney for once lose some control

We're talking about the corporation who tried buying Dia de Los Muertos and copyrighted Greek mythology. I don't think we should be worried about Mickey Mouse becoming public domain, instead we should be scared of how far they'll go for that NOT to happen.

Ya know, I can imagine one quick way of avoiding all of this hassle; When the copyright for Mickey was supposed to die, they could have introduced Mickey's son, Mickey Jr., and just copyrighted THAT character while changing nothing. They both get to keep their character (in spirit) and got to label themselves as the "Home of the Mickey family tree."

This means that Mokey can now be referred to as Mickey.

I personally like to think of this as Mickey finally being able to go into retirement after entering millions for generations. I like to imagine a big retirement party with all his friends as one final send off

“Mickey was Walt and Walt was Mickey” -Leonard Maltin

Pffft, anyone thinking Mickey's copyright is actually going to expire clearly hasn't been paying attention. Every single time Mickey's copyright has been set to expire, Disney finds a way to get around it. I see no reason to think this time will be any different.

I think a character getting into public domain is a good thing, since it allow different vision of this character (I mean Disney litteraly founded themselves on this idea, by reimaginating new version of classic tales).

The only good thing about it, is that Kingdom Hearts can now fully make Mickey do more things in the series than just to show up once or twice as an Easter egg, or do medicore things. The original team wanted Mickey to be the main character, but Disney didn't want it. That's where the loveable Sora came into place, with a mash up off Mickey's clothes attire, with a touch of final fantasy. Disney was also the reason why Mickey only showed up in the ending of KH1. They didn't want him to show up more times. So now, they should be able to use Mickey more, (maybe?)

Well what they may do is basically say the OG Mickey Mouse is different from their current one. So they can keep copy right on the newer versions while also allowing public domain for the OG variant.

But at the same time, copyright only last a limited amount of time to allow future artists, authors and creators to benefit from these old works losing their copyrights by inspiring them to create new works using them and encouraging creativity and innovation.

I don't think copyrights should last past the natural life span of the creator. The reliance on long standing copyrights lead to stagnation like it did in the 70's and 80's. They company almost died and they were forced to innovate. We got the Disney Renaissance out if it.

People don’t realize Disney changes laws whenever Mickey is set to become public domain

Disney still owns all the trademarks to their character which don’t expire ever. So they can still make more Mickey films

Maybe it's for the best that Disney loses the rights to Mickey Mouse. Their recent IPs have sucked so hard.

Hollywood explains after reacts this, they told after Mickey Mouse copyright expires it remain itself as public domain. However in the deep future, most fictionals's copyright changes until it switch for public domain for new update for fair use instead piracy.

I think it's poetic if Mickey Mouse was to enter the public domain. Many of Disney’s works were built upon it, so it would be like giving back to the community.

The first movie to come out when Mickey Mouse goes into Public Domain would probably be a horror movie

Great video. The one thing I though about when I knew about Mickey mouse being public domain is that Its Disney, and they have the power to buy and sell whatever they want. I could see them suing people for using the character even after its copyright law expires.

Here’s the thing of it. Just because he COULD be used doesn’t mean he WILL be used, I won’t say it’s not a legit fear but I think that due to how he’s strongly tied to Disney that I don’t think anyone wants to try to be compared by Disney.

It would be funny and strange to see Mickey used in a Nickelodeon , Cartoon Network, or a dreamworks project 🤣

I'm surprised Disney HASN'T trademarked him

The public domain is a right not a danger

I mean like yea, I understand Disney wants to protect Mickey but doing that also basically fucked up the copyright law for everyone else with stuff that would’ve been in the public domain by now are years and years away from being in it all because of this rat

These videos keep ignoring how the Disney empire was built using public domain stories like Snow White, Pinocchio and The Little Mermaid, so they don't have a ground to complain that they did nothing wrong and are just protecting their creations.

It's pretty much Disney's fault for pausing published works to go to the public domain for 20 years. Before that change, it's 75 years. This was done all because of Mickey Mouse. So yeah, published works from 1947 would have been in the public domain today. I'll be fine with my works going to the public domain after such a long time, but I sadly won't get to see it because I'll be dead by then.

Here's a pretty amazing example of it with these characters. Technically Peg Leg Pete entered the PD ages ago, but the redesign that we are more aware of only started in the late 20s. But to be perfectly honest, they trademarked all those characters ages ago.

Much of the so-called Disney animated canon is based upon Public Domain works. It is long past time for this corporation to return to the Public Domain that benefitted it so greatly for longer than anyone working for it have been alive.

Lol i love how you are talking about this like it's a GOOD thing 🙃 Cinderella, the princesses,and all of Grimms stories that Disney watered down and made into films are also in the public domain. Yet people still prefer to watch Disney movies for those representations. Same thing will happen to Mickey. We could have had a Mickey Dream Works movie by now if it wasn't for greedy Disney!!

I can already imagine Dana Terrace and the entire The Owl House staff and fandom tearing his image limb from limb.

if disney looses rights to mickey after the copyright ends they have oswald the lucky rabbit,ever since they got him back they've done nothing with him,but if disney makes him the new mascot they can do anything with him like they did for mickey

in all honesty is think mickey mouse would still be the disney's main maskot. yes he might be public domain and be used by everybody but people have associated mickey mouse with disney for decades and he is still the face of disney. its just that his legacy will be expanded upon. which in matters. is a good thing.

disney built their empire on the stories in the public domain. then they pull up the ladder behind them to prevent anyone else from doing it too/

They’re gonna somehow renew it. Mark. My. Words.

Mickey's final months before going public domain reminds me of how March 31 2021 was a very sad day for Mario because there were rumors/memes that Mario would die that day but it turns out that thankfully he didn't die but his 35th anniversary games are no longer on sales although thankfully Super Mario 3D All Stars is still on sales in stores

This is just like what happened to Winnie the Pooh’s copyright status last year. The royalty on the books had expired, thus allowing an English horror movie to be released next month! Do you suppose that the same could happen to Mickey Mouse? Cause anything goes when you have a character in the public domain.

I feel like it's good for Mickey Mouse to go into the public domain, without even the option for trademarking. Disney's constant tampering with copyright law has made it extremely easy for larger corporations and creators to abuse, even outside of the animation industry, to the point that creating anything without already being rich is a mine field of if someone's going to come out of the woodworks and start screaming about how you ripped them off (intentionally or not).

If Walt was still alive today seeing what his company is doing to mickey? He would be disappointed, cross, devastated and disgusted.

It’s the Steam Boat Willie version that will be going public domain(-and should). Other versions of Mickey will go public domain after SBW.

The Steamboat Willie version of Mickey Mouse may be entering public domain soon, but that doesn't mean that Disney won't be able to use him anymore, it just means that Disney will have to share Steamboat Willie Mickey Mouse with the public. The classic Winnie-the-Pooh stuff is now entering public domain. The first book had entered public domain last year, while the second book where Tigger debuted will enter public domain next year. Even though Disney no longer could protect the classic books from being used without special permission, Winnie-the-Pooh will finally be able to be used for everyone, including Disney. So it won't just be Disney making Winnie-the-Pooh stuff now. But the public still won't be able to use Gopher and Lumpy the good Heffalump. Gopher and Lumpy were created by Disney and they didn't appear in the original Winnie-the-Pooh books. Gopher and Lumpy will be under copyright for a while until they enter public domain, then Disney will let people and studios have access to them. So don't worry, Steamboat Willie Mickey Mouse will still be used by Disney, except Disney will have to share him when the copyright protection over him expires.

I’m currently making my own Mickey series, so I can finally post it without being thrown into prison or debt

My prediction is that for the first several years, it'll be nothing but slander and parodies of world's most famous creation as some kind of vengeance / penance towards how Disney ruined public domain. Then you'll start seeing more sincere uses of the character.

That moment when even mickey leaves modern disney

When he becomes public domain I'm gonna make an AU where he is real and worshipped by the company, but slowly he starts to realize that even HE thinks a lot of decisions the company is making now are absurd, and no-one can stop me

I wouldn't imagine it would hurt Disney's profits that much, Disney would make more merch based on Steamboat Mickey as a disguise mechanism. I should know since I've look through some Winnie the Pooh teddy bears that are based in his PD friendly look and they're made by Disney.

Thing is Disney's political slant has hurt it immensely in its ability to lobby Congress. In 1999 Disney as a brand wasn't seen as a partisan thing and it could much more easily lobby Congress no matter which party controlled it. Today Disney burned through a massive amount of political capitol fighting for far-left causes on behalf of activists Bob Iger stacked the company with and is now viewed in disfavor by most Republicans. With the GOP controlling Congress the chances of any legislation being passed to help Disney is nill. But Disney has much bigger problems than Mickey entering the public domain. One ticking time bomb is China. Disney has made the decision to invest billions in the China market and has even been willing to support the Communist Regime's crimes against humanity to placate that market at the expense of their image in the West. This is risky though because if war breaks out in the Taiwan straight and America responds by sanctioning China the Chinese Communist Party will almost certainly respond by seizing the assets of American companies in China. This could result in billions in assets Disney has built for decades being seized with absolutely nothing Disney can do to stop it. As the saying goes sleep with snakes don't be surprised when you get bit

Such a good video. I woke up with this exact thought. Didn't know about the other versions. Thanks for making this!

Thanks for making a thorough yet concise video on the topic. This video covers the subject very well.

I am not looking forward to the inevitable Mickey Mouse horror movie.

Ive seen quite a few people getting upsey about it as if it were a terrible thing, are them disney bots? do them not understand what public domain is? or are normies so brainwashed to worship corporations mindlessly?

I want someone to make a cartoon of Winnie the Pooh and Mickey Mouse talking to each other since they're both public domain and the dynamic would be really cute

Man it's insane that Mickey, in his ENTIRE existence... has never had a full-length theatrical film since Steamboat Willy. If they were to make a movie for Mickey, I'd LOVE a classic 2D animation retelling of Castle of Illusion.

Mickey should go into the public domain. Disney should not get any special treatment. When Mickey does going to the public domain, the world is not going to end. I am not a Disney fan. This just came up in my recommended.

Disney needs to make it in the Public Domain.

If it's allowed. You're going to see a lot of innovations to the character. But it won't be, and the world will refuse to change.

Would Disney really be missing him tho? They barely do anything with Mickey

It should have been illegal for them to do this s*** in the first place

I think that the only thing that that shows is the power of money and corruption combined.

They'll do it by appearances in various media. The late 30s mickey with pupils will probably be what They'll try to hold on to the most, copyrightwise.

I knew Mickey was going to go into public domain soon, but in just one year!

The Mickey Mouse that we see today was in fact NOT created in the 1980's that design was actually created by Fred Moore, it would make its debut in 1938 in comics, and show up in a cartoon in 1939.

It won't change anything. Just look at other characters like Felix the cat that has been in the public domain for a while and yet we don't see any third party products based on it.

honestly 100 years of Copyright is ridiculus 30-40 years shuld be good

I wish that happen more with Japanese media than Disney's mascot. You do realize how times Toho Co. Ltd and Toei Animation got away with striking channels and filing lawsuits?

If I got money for my Mickey Mouse stuff, I'd give it to Disney to keep them in business!

Bendy: *Watches the downfall of Disney* So. This is what Oswald or Someone else wanted.... Yiiiikes..... Not even Oswald can go that he is not that dumb awww well....

Disney deserves this. After getting the copyright protection laws extended from 56 years to 75 years in 1976, and again from 75 years to 96 years in 1998. Furthermore, with recent news involving Disney’s involvement in Florida’s business, and ‘The Proud Family’s’ shenanigans.

Once the copyright expires I really want to make a game called Mickey Mouse Gun Run

Hopefully this will give Oswald a chance to be the mascot of Disney and get back the spotlight

Dude, This is quality! I was legitimately surprised when I saw it only had 208 views. Seriously, Keep it up. I see a bright future on your channel!

Stuff needs to expire and wealthy organisations shouldn't be pampered by bending the law for them alone. Can't wait for 2025's _Mickey: Blood and Charcoal_ sequel to this year's Pooh horror

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! THIS CAN’T BE HAPPENING! I’MA OWN MICKEY MOUSE SOMEDAY

Guys don't worry The normal Mickey is still going to be in disney but only the steamboat willie will be in public domain.

This is fantastic

Disney is going to go *Full Dictator Mode* if the court refuses to be bribed to change Copyright Law AGAIN XD

Now Suicide Mouse Can In Someway be Offical. (If I’m wrong. Let me know)

Me: oh, okay, 2023. Logic: *the year **_is_** 2023.*

I think Oswald the lucky rabbit will become Disney's new mascot.

6:31 Great video. However, all IP is ethically wrong. There is no property right over an idea, because property rights only pertain to scarce resources. All IP enforcement is an act of control over people's free agency to create or copy whatever they please. All IP should be abolished and cease to be enforced.

Mickey Mouse is gonna be around for such a long time even if he's going to be in the domain.

I believe the new Disney game on Nintendo Switch, which uses the Steamboat Willie version of the character, was released primarily to get around this issue. Even if Disney loses the copyright, Nintendo still has it on the game and they are known for aggressively pursuing copyright infringement cases.

He was supposed to years back they extended the thing

Its unbelieveable that the 100 anniversary happened when mickey copyright is expiring.

Yes I'm happy this is happening they don't deserve him anymore

They go to Oswald and slowly start gaslighting people about how he's the same and changing his name, lol... that said, Mickey needs to be released to the public. This kinda thing needs to happen, they can't be allowed to cheat the system everybody else needs to abide by just because we liked the cartoons growing up

They are going to stop Mickey from entering the public domain Law dont apply to big companies:/

Im highly doubtful that he go into the public domain as they’ll probably just lobby to extend the contract more years again and the cycle will continue indefinitely.