Get Ready to Remix: Mickey Mouse's 1.0 Release Enters the Public Domain

As the calendar turns over to the last day of 2023, an era will come to a close, and another will begin—an era where the original Mickey Mouse, as featured in "Steamboat Willie" and the silent short "Plane Crazy," will transition into the public domain. January 1, 2024, ushers in a new class of historical works, including those published in 1928, but also, due to an unusual aspect of copyright law, audio recordings from 1923.

The Center for the Study of the Public Domain at Duke University highlights the entrance of remarkable works such as "Lady Chatterley's Lover" by D.H. Lawrence, which faced years of censorship; Virginia Woolf's "Orlando"; the whimsical "House at Pooh Corner" by A.A. Milne and E. H. Shepard that introduced readers to Tigger; Cole Porter's enchanting tune "Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love)," and the jovial original recording of "Yes! We Have No Bananas."

With the expiration of these copyrights, anyone can freely download, reuse, and modify these works. For example, someone might feel inspired to create and publish a piece of fan fiction that merges characters from "Steamboat Willie" and "House at Pooh Corner," sprinkling it with Porter's ironic lyrics. Post December 31, such creative endeavors will be unrestricted by copyright laws, though creators must still navigate the boundaries of good taste.

It's important to note that while these works from 1928 will be available to the public, later iterations of these characters, especially Mickey Mouse, are still under Disney's domain. Furthermore, Disney's trademark on Mickey Mouse means that any derivative works must not imply Disney's endorsement or connection.

The Center for the Study of the Public Domain at Duke University clarifies these nuances, using visual aids such as a mouse-ears diagram to distinguish between copyright and trademark protections.

Despite the entertainment industry's previous successful lobbying efforts to extend copyright durations, including the 1998 retroactive extension that set the term to the author's life plus 70 years, the trend seems to be changing. Since that extension, no copyrighted works were released into the public domain until January 1, 2019. The expectation that the industry would push for another extension before Mickey Mouse's copyright expired has not come to fruition.

The legislative atmosphere surrounding intellectual property rights in the U.S. capital has undergone a transformation, especially in the wake of a failed bid to adopt far-reaching copyright protection measures in 2012. These measures would have compelled online service providers to implement restrictive control measures. This change in perspective is a recognition that copyright is designed as a temporal motivation to spur the production of fresh, innovative content, not as a perpetual revenue stream for content creators. Consistent with the constitutional framework, the main objective of intellectual property protection is to promote progress in scientific and artistic realms by providing creators and innovators with exclusive rights for a limited duration.

Jennifer Jenkins, director of the Duke Center, elaborates on the significance of the public domain. She presents it as a source of immense creative potential. According to Jenkins, while copyright laws are designed to bestow rights that promote creativity and the dissemination of works, they also ensure these rights are limited in duration. Once expired, they enrich the public domain, and future authors are then able to legally expand on the past works—breathing new life into the literature, converting books to film, and finding reimaginings for songs and movies. This cycle serves as a catalyst for continued innovation and cultural enrichment.