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Credit: Disney (Edited by ITM)Disney is at risk of losing one of its most iconic characters.
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As we’ve previously reported, Disney is facing the end of its ownership of Mickey Mouse’s Steamboat Willie persona. The Steamboat Willie character will enter the public domain at the start of 2024, giving The Walt Disney Company only a few weeks until copyright ends. The Hollywood Reporter published the original story, revealing that Disney was at risk of losing Steamboat Willie in three years. This story was published back in 2021, and with only a few short weeks left in 2023, the time has come.
“The copyright for Walt Disney’s Steamboat Willie — which introduced the world to Mickey Mouse — is set to expire and enter the public domain in three years.” Mickey Mouse made his debut in this cartoon in 1928. However, the Mickey Mouse that we saw in the film is different from other iterations of the character as time progressed.
Previously, Disney lobbied Congress to lengthen the number of years that copyrights can be held in 1988, further extending its ownership of the character. The law ended up being called the Copyright Term Extension Act but was also given the more accurate name, “the Mickey Mouse Protection Act.”
Of course, The Walt Disney Company still owns the Mickey Mouse character through a trademark, so that version is safe. Steamboat Willie, on the other hand, is only protected under copyright, and once that ends, other artists and creators can do as they please with the Steamboat Willie character.
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This is far from the first time a popular Disney character has entered the public domain. Winnie the Pooh recently entered the public domain, with creators acting quickly and cashing in on the name and notoriety of the character. This is how we ended up with 2023’s Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, a horror/slasher film featuring characters like Winnie the Pooh and Piglet.
In 2020, Mickey Mouse started starring in the animated Disney+ series The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse, which featured his fellow classic characters Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy, Steamboat Silly eventually debuted, which marked the end of The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse, and with that, Disney’s final decision to stop creating animated videos of Mickey Mouse.
Only time will tell what becomes of the Steamboat Willie character, but it’s hard to imagine him without The Walt Disney Company.
What are your thoughts on this story? Who’s your favorite Disney character?