Just hours after the copyright of the earliest incarnation of one of Disney‘s most legendary characters expired and entered the public domain, it looked as though Mickey Mouse had swapped his life at Disney Land for the chance to star in a new slasher film.
Well, almost. Steamboat Willie, a 1928 animated short film which features the original version of Mickey and Minnie Mouse, had been copyrighted to Disney until it expired on January 1 2024. The copyright’s expiration now means that the use of Steamboat Willie (an early version of Mickey) is free to use without legal pushback from Disney.
In the first 24 hours after Disney lost control over Steamboat Willie, people have been having fun turning the character into NFTs, remixing his whistle into a dubstep tune, making him murder people in video games, or star in a grisly horror movie.
By Monday (1 January), a poster and teaser trailer was revealed for Mickey’s Mouse Trap, an independent horror film in which a masked killer dressed as Mickey Mouse attacks a group of young people in an arcade (the film has yet to secure a distributor but its producers hope to release the movie by March).
Steamboat Willie, which has an eight-minute run time, was directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks and first distributed in 1928. The cartoon is considered the debut of both Mickey and Minnie Mouse, who are now instantly recognisable as the poster characters for the Disney franchise and any visit to Disneyland.
Poster for ‘Mickey’s Mouse Trap’— (PA)
Until 1 January, the copyright of Steamboat Willie had been at the centre of various copyright disputes, with Disney often cracking down on the usage of the character’s image in official and unofficial media.
As well as Mickey’s Mouse Trap, a video game developing company named Nightmare Forge has also revealed the trailer for Infestation 88, a horror video game in which the player is hunted down by a scary-looking version of Steamboat Willie.
How did this happen?
The copyright protection on Walt Disney’s 1928 animated short was initially due to expire in 1984, but Disney lobbied to have US copyright laws changed to cover the “life of the author plus 50 years”, which protected the mouse character until 2003.
Then in 1998, Disney successfully lobbied to have copyright protection extended again to the “life of the author plus 70 years” or 95 years after publication, whichever ends earlier. This extension to the copyright act protected Willie until the end of 2023 and was dubbed the Mickey Mouse Protection Act.
In the US, the law now allows a copyright to be held for 95 years, after Congress expanded the copyright several times during Mickey’s life.
What other characters have entered the public domain?
This wouldn’t be the first time a much-loved childhood character has been turned into a villain when its copyright expired and entered the public domain. In 2022, A.A. Milne’s original Winnie the Pooh stories entered the public domain, meaning that although Disney’s version of the character is still protected by copyright, the company no longer exclusively owns the rights to Winnie the Pooh.
Early in 2023, the independent slasher film Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey was released, which follows Pooh and Piglet, who have become feral and blood thirsty murderers who terrorise Christopher Robin and a group of female University students.
A still from ‘Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey’— (Altitude Film Distribution)
Other 1928 works and creations in the US public domain as of 1 January include JM Barrie’s Peter Pan, Virginia Woolf’s Orlando and Winnie-the-Pooh’s companion Tigger.
Can anyone use Steamboat Willie?
It’s important to remember that while Steamboat Willie has lost its copyright protection in the US and other countries, Mickey Mouse as we know him remains under copyright.
In Steamboat Willie, for example, Mickey has no voice, a pointier nose, a long tail and solid black eyes for pupils. Later versions of Mickey see Mickey with big eyes with pupils and he wears his signature big red shots and large white gloves – a version that Disney will continue to be watching closely to make sure it is not being used against their copyright.
Anyone in the US can make use of Willie as seen in the 1928 short to create new stories or artwork depicting the characters.
Steamboat Willie, 1928— (Snap/Shutterstock)
However, worldwide, Steamboat Willie will remain protected until at least 2042 in some countries that extend protection to works 70 years after the death of the last remaining author or creator – and Steamboat Willie’s co-creator Iwerks died in 1971. It’s recommended that if you want to use Steamboat Willie, research your country’s copyright laws.
“More modern versions of Mickey will remain unaffected by the expiration of the Steamboat Willie copyright, and Mickey will continue to play a leading role as a global ambassador for the Walt Disney Company in our storytelling, theme park attractions, and merchandise,” Disney said in a statement last week.
“We will, of course, continue to protect our rights in the more modern versions of Mickey Mouse and other works that remain subject to copyright.”
