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General Category => National/Breaking News => Topic started by: jmyrlefuller on January 02, 2024, 12:37:07 am

Title: Mickey Mouse, Tigger and more: Notable works entering the public domain in 2024
Post by: jmyrlefuller on January 02, 2024, 12:37:07 am
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mickey-mouse-tigger-lady-chatterleys-lover-notable-works-enter-public-domain-2024/
by Leo Rocha
January 1, 2024

The earliest versions of Mickey and Minnie Mouse now belong to the American people. The characters as they appear in the animated short films "Steamboat Willie" and "Plane Crazy" entered the U.S. public domain Monday, along with thousands of other works from 1928.

Legal experts at Duke University say the Walt Disney Company still retains the copyrights to later iterations of the iconic mice for the time being, as well as the trademarks, but people "are free to copy, share and build on" the 1928 depictions of the pair.
Title: Re: Mickey Mouse, Tigger and more: Notable works entering the public domain in 2024
Post by: Gefn on January 02, 2024, 11:08:11 am
I always had a soft spot for Tigger. He bounces!
Title: Re: Mickey Mouse, Tigger and more: Notable works entering the public domain in 2024
Post by: Smokin Joe on January 02, 2024, 11:47:54 am
I thought all the Pooh characters were from AA Milne. Tigger first appeared in (the book) The House at Pooh Corner in 1928.

I remember reading those books before Disney got a hold of Pooh...
Title: Re: Mickey Mouse, Tigger and more: Notable works entering the public domain in 2024
Post by: jmyrlefuller on January 02, 2024, 12:34:48 pm
Quote from: Smokin Joe on January 02, 2024, 11:47:54 am
I thought all the Pooh characters were from AA Milne. Tigger first appeared in (the book) The House at Pooh Corner in 1928.

I remember reading those books before Disney got a hold of Pooh...
You're right. Milne published the two books that created those characters in the late 1920s. That's why they entered public domain yesterday. Disney only acquired the (now expired) intellectual property in the '70s.