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Comment by sharemywin | Hacker News Reader

Disney now has until 2023 to figure out how to extend that date once again. Enter Steamboat Willy, the first Mickey Mouse cartoon and the first animated short by Walt Disney in 1928. Under the 1909 Copyright scheme, the Mickey Mouse character had copyright protection for 56 years (with the renewal), expiring in 1984.

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The more relevant deadline is for Winnie the Pooh (first published in 1924). Pooh is worth several billion dollars per year to Disney, so don't be surprised if they try to change the copyright (again) in the next year.

Wait, does the copyright not just cover the actual movie/videos/art/... of that time, still having them own the character itself (since they're actively using it)?

I believe that officially only the movies, etc., would fall into the public domain. But people can make derivative works of public domain items, so they wouldn’t be limited to literal copies of Steamboat Willie. They could show Steamboat Willie using a smartphone.

However, Disney also has trademarks on Mickey Mouse, etc., so using Mickey’s likeness in commercial ways would still be a legal minefield.

I would have thought most of that merch would be based on Disney's visual depiction of Pooh dating from 1966.

I would have thought an ok way of dealing with these things would be after say 30 years to have an $100 annual copyright maintenance fee you have to pay. It'd be no problem for Disney but for 99% of the stuff out there no one would bother.

Was this angle of Disney’s schenanigans popularly known last time they pulled the stunt?

I don’t remember how widespread this was, but in many circles, the 1998 bill was referred to as Mickey Mouse Protection Act.

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