The Mouse is Free. It's Public Domain Day 2024.

so today is a day that many people thought would never arrive it's January 1st 2024 and it's public domain day at the start of every year depending on your country's legal code certain published Works enter the public domain meaning their copyright has expired and that work whether it's a book or a song or a movie artwork photograph whatever for all intents and purposes now belongs to everyone anyone is free to use it whether duplicating it adapting it remixing or transforming it even for commercial purposes in recent years I've become an advocate of sorts for the public domain mostly because my country the United States has one of the strictest copyright laws on the planet with ownership rights lasting for 95 years but it wasn't always like this originally copyright protections lasted for just 14 years in America with the option to Ren for another 14 if desired but several amendments to copyright law over the years have extended that ownership period further and further with the most recent extension in 1998 giving us our current system this act came to be known by critics as the Mickey Mouse protection act due to the Walt Disney company's extensive lobbying around it as a way to preserve their ownership of the character Mickey Mouse whose copyright was set to collapse this is a bit of oversimplified History the truth is several large companies had a hand in persuading Congress to adopt the extension including Universal Viacom Time Warner all the various professional sports leagues and this heavy lobbying and continual kicking of the can was seen by many people as a sign that the US was eventually headed toward a forever copyright system wherein entertainment monopolies would just continue to maintain a NeverEnding strangle hold on various properties but today is a sign that things may be changing you see today's public domain Day in the US is a little different than most because starting today thousands of copyrights from the year 1928 have officially expired and one of those Works happens to be an early Walt Disney short film called Steamboat Willie which introduced the world to the character Mickey Mouse Mickey of course would go on to become become the face of the Walt Disney Empire and for decades the company has fiercely Protected Their ownership of the character and his likeness guarding Mickey has been one of the biggest driving forces behind making our entire copyright law so strict and extensive and complex and so most everybody assumed that before Mickey's public domain day arrived some 11th Hour piece of legislation would be introduced to extend copyrights in America once again but wouldn't you know it lawmakers evidently have had enough and starting today Mickey Mouse the Beloved cartoon character is owned by everyone sort of to be clear the only thing entering the public domain is the Steamboat Willie version of the character as the years went on Disney of course developed more and more of the character with a slightly altered look specific character traits story lines that have all come to be the Mickey that most folks associate with the name today this Mickey the modern Mickey that Disney has spent about the past Century promoting is not in the public domain they still very much own it and boy howdy will they protect it legally Disney also still separately holds a trademark on Mickey as a corporate mascot and brand identifier so don't go starting a company trying to use him as your logo and you definitely can't use the character to deceptively fool consumers into thinking that they are purchasing legitimate Disney products however this original version is open for adaptation I cannot overstate just how Monumental that this is because however Disney and the general public handle Mickey going forward will set the standard for all popular characters that are also set to lose copyright in the coming years okay so why is public domain so crucial why not just let copyrights last forever there's a few reasons first and foremost setting time limits for copyright prevents the monopolization of cultural and educational resources do we really want to live in a world where a company could just create endless Works solely for the purpose of fencing off ownership rights of information yuck public domain allows the democratization of access meaning a broader audience can enjoy and learn from works that might otherwise be restricted what's more public domain preserves history it ensures that cultural and historical Works remain accessible for future Generations this is good because humans are at our best when we are free to share information back and forth stories and culture public domain encourages creativity and Innovation allowing artists and creators to build upon existing work without constraints this is great for both educational material but also creative Works think of the writings of Shakespeare Jane Austin artists like Vincent van Gogh Beethoven Charlie Chaplain stories like Cinderella Snow White Hansel and gredle Dracula Sherlock Holmes and The Wizard of Oz all of these have enjoyed extended life thanks to public domain and sure public domain means that plenty of less than satisfying adaptations can be made but it also allows us to Breathe new life into stories and make compelling versions too in the internet age where reinterpretation remix and recontextualization is celebrated because it adds to the Zeitgeist having a healthy and strong public domain leads to incredible New Creations and Mickey's not the only thing that's free to Source from today characters like Peter Pan and Tigger books like All Quiet on the Western Front several popular Motion Pictures and even music like Steamboat Willie are now free to use from classic novels to early cinematic masterpieces the possibilities for new adaptations are just getting started today is an open invitation to all aspiring creators out there it's your turn to take these beloved works and make them your own create innovate let your imagination run wild I've been spending the last year or so so adapting several public domain comic book characters last year I published a book called the Spider Queen reimagining one of the first golden age leading ladies in the modern day using the original publication as a creative springboard I crafted my own Universe with original characters and Adventures I'm also wrapping up production on a feature movie adapting an abandoned comic hero named Atlas and I even produced a Saturday morning Style cartoon based on a public domain comic crime fighter called The Sensational Catman so starting today what are you going to make this video is sponsored by Squarespace got a creation to show off or a business idea that you want to bring to life they've got everything that you need to get started start with one of their best-in-class website templates and then use their new fluid engine to customize it just how you like it use member areas to host exclusive video content and if 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Channel: AustinMcConnell

Views: 372,233

Keywords: mickey mouse, public domain, micky, mouse

Id: xo89hj8SG0c

Length: 8min 23sec (503 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 01 2024