The irony of the situation is that the original Steamboat Willie cartoon was itself a direct parody of a 1928 live-action silent film titled Steamboat Bill, Jr., now freely available in the public domain. The past two instances of copyright term extensions, in particular, have occurred just as Willie was about to sail into the public domain.
PUBLIC DOMAIN MAGIC ICON FREE
Interestingly, 1998 wasn’t the first time Steamboat Willie came close to becoming Free Willie, only to have copyright laws extended at the last moment it’s happened on at least four occasions. This meant that one of pop culture’s most visible icons - according to the company, 98% of the world’s children between the ages of 3 and 11 display some awareness of Mickey - was about to become freely available for anyone to use. Under the previous copyright timeline, Mickey Mouse (or, anyway, his earliest incarnation: a gloveless boating enthusiast from the 1928 cartoon Steamboat Willie) was set to enter the public domain in 2003. The mousetrap was about to snap shut on the Walt Disney Company. Congressman from California) was eventually signed into law. Thanks in large part to Disney’s efforts, the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (named to posthumously honor Cher’s former babe, the U.S. In fact, the company’s lobbying efforts were so extensive, the bill is often referred to as the “Mickey Mouse Protection Act.” In any event, two more decades of exclusive rights meant potential billions to the Disney corporation, and Mickey wasn’t afraid to break out his claws to guarantee they got them. Proponents argued that the extensions bolstered free thinking by encouraging people to create new works, rather than appropriate the works of others. The new terms, it was said, threatened to tamper not only free speech, but cultural and scientific advancement as well. Opponents of the bill argued that such extensions would make it arbitrarily more difficult to legitimately procure older items that, according to previous laws, should long since have passed into the public domain. (The changes would also affect works created by individuals, protecting them for an additional 70 years following the death of their author, up from 50 years in 1973.) Make Your Case The previous limit, set in 1973, guaranteed rights for just 75 years. Under the planned revisions, corporations (for example: the Walt Disney Company) would retain exclusive rights to original characters and content for a period of 95 years. copyright limits was brought before the Senate. In 1998, Mickey scampered to Capitol Hill when a bill proposing a 20-year extension of U.S. He even moonlights as the poster rodent for copyright protection. Roger Richards/The Washington Times/Landovįrom his humble beginnings as a steamboat stowaway to his current gig as the Magic Kingdom’s most famous resident, Mickey Mouse has worked a lot of jobs. Image from the Patent and Trademark Museum.
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