I only hear about it in passing in replies, is this news actually true? Are they trying to hide this fact from others?
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This is technically copyright. Speaking of autism, but I've been seeing people throw around 'trademarked' and 'patented', but it's not. AFAIK, patents only last something like 25 years (which is why knockoff Lego and retro SNES consoles are a thing) and I don't know if trademarks ever expire ("Just Do It" is a trademark slogan, for example).
Anyway, the point of this isn't really "yay, we can use Steamboat Willie". It's that this is the first time ever that Disney has let a property enter public domain.
Disney is single-handedly responsible for the fact that you don't know about public domain. They have been lobbying for half a century to protect their "IP" by changing all copyright law to last longer (I think it's currently "life of the author" plus 50 years). Iirc, the last major work to enter public domain is the Wizard of Oz books from the early 1900s.
This is much bigger than simply losing control of an old property. This means all old properties from that era will now start entering public domain, something which a lot of us assumed would never happen. If things don't turn around for them, and soon, we could start seeing early Marvel and DC comics entering public domain as well, not to mention stuff like the Phantom, all free for anyone to use, abuse, or crossover.
We could be looking at a serious cultural revolution when people realize what was being kept from them. Maybe not today, but this is where it began.