Media agendas aside, part of it is that they've only lost copyright to the oldest versions of those characters. The versions most familiar to the public are much newer and still copyrighted.
Yeah, the immediate loss to Disney is more academic than not. It's important that they haven't managed to pervert copyright laws even further to retain rights indefinitely, but these specific versions of characters were not significant to their bottom line.
Far more important was them voluntarily turning their still protected IPs into worthless radioactive garbage, and that is probably part of the reason they lacked the political clout to keep their copyright shenanigans going even longer.
It's important that they haven't managed to pervert copyright laws even further to retain rights indefinitely
Which is something a lot of us thought would never happen. It was a pretty common belief 10+ years ago that the public domain essentially ended with the release of Steamboat Willie, and that nothing made after would ever enter it.
Yellow bear Pooh is open to the public, but most wouldn't recognize him without added context anyway. Red Shirt Pooh is the most recognizable and he is still owned completely.
Yup. Steamboat Willie has no commercial use now other than awareness. So why not let it expire? You get your puppet press to talk about how magnanimous Disney is for giving it to the public, and suddenly everyone is reminded about Disney in relation to something that isn't controversial for a change.
That may be true on paper but as far as 'pulp' culture is concerned, it's the same mouse.
By the same token I'm positive Disney will only be able to tolerate so many images of steamboat dubya being sodomised by Pete before they do something more overt. I give it 3 months before his likeness just won't be generated by AI tools anymore, as an example.
Because admitting a company like Disney was brought to their knees by following their ideology would be a VERY bad politically.
It'll only get worse, the apathy of consumers at this point and Desantis doing badly means he's coming back like an abusive husband to beat them up some more.
Get woke go broke actually worked. After a decade of failure Disney didn't have enough money leftover to bribe Congress to extend the copyrights like they did in the past.
The woke shit is killing them early, but there is no escaping the fact the White demographic who built, maintained the country, and watched the classics, kept so many cultural institutions and arts going, etc, are quickly dwilndling in numbers.
Who is going to keep a movie industry going? Who will shop at garden centers to keep a market for the several tens of thousands of cultivars of cultivated fine plants ( ex : the AOS bleeding members )? Chess clubs? Animal breeds kept as pets? ( cats, dogs, horses, parrots, finches, pheasants, fishes. etc. ) Orchestral music, heck, most music? Paintings? Sculptures amd architecture? The books industry? Our national and regional languages?
Not sub-Saharian Africans, the booming demographic trippling each generation.
It's the entirety of Western civilizations that are dying.
Yep. Some people will inevitably overlook that and try making content with newer iterations of those characters, and those people will get sued into the Seventh Circle of Hell, because Disney are still the most litigious motherfuckers on Earth.
A lot of the Disney critics like to lionize Walt and try to say he'd be spinning in his grave if he could see the state of things now, but I'm a lot more skeptical. Maybe he wouldn't be a fan of the woke content, but as far as the legal stuff goes, I think he was always at the root of that.
Yes, and that would be because of getting burnt when he was just first starting out. So the modern company inherited that DNA and amplified it.
That being said, I remember my grade school let an older kid paint a picture of Elliot on the wall in the basement next to the library when Pete's Dragon first came out. I wonder if it's still there?
For my part, there are lots of reasons why I don't care.
First, they're irrevocably tainted by the company itself. Second, it's only a small proportion of the overall total of stuff they've managed to unnaturally extend far past the actual copyright date. Third, those cartoons sucked, they were only ever popular from the sheer novelty of being animated.
As for why it's not being reported... the purpose of the media is twofold. To push propaganda and to demoralize. This would serve neither purpose.
They are trying to hide it. Because if it gets too wide spread, you can have Mikey saying trannies are mentally retarded and climate cultists are morons and Disney will be powerless to do anything about it.
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.
Media agendas aside, part of it is that they've only lost copyright to the oldest versions of those characters. The versions most familiar to the public are much newer and still copyrighted.
Yeah, the immediate loss to Disney is more academic than not. It's important that they haven't managed to pervert copyright laws even further to retain rights indefinitely, but these specific versions of characters were not significant to their bottom line.
Far more important was them voluntarily turning their still protected IPs into worthless radioactive garbage, and that is probably part of the reason they lacked the political clout to keep their copyright shenanigans going even longer.
Which is something a lot of us thought would never happen. It was a pretty common belief 10+ years ago that the public domain essentially ended with the release of Steamboat Willie, and that nothing made after would ever enter it.
Yeah its like the Winnie the Pooh thing.
Yellow bear Pooh is open to the public, but most wouldn't recognize him without added context anyway. Red Shirt Pooh is the most recognizable and he is still owned completely.
Remember when Winnie the Pooh visited San Francisco and the poop disappeared overnight?
POOH MAGIC IS REAL!
Pretty sure it's that they have they current versions registered as trademarks.
Yup. Steamboat Willie has no commercial use now other than awareness. So why not let it expire? You get your puppet press to talk about how magnanimous Disney is for giving it to the public, and suddenly everyone is reminded about Disney in relation to something that isn't controversial for a change.
That may be true on paper but as far as 'pulp' culture is concerned, it's the same mouse.
By the same token I'm positive Disney will only be able to tolerate so many images of steamboat dubya being sodomised by Pete before they do something more overt. I give it 3 months before his likeness just won't be generated by AI tools anymore, as an example.
Because admitting a company like Disney was brought to their knees by following their ideology would be a VERY bad politically.
It'll only get worse, the apathy of consumers at this point and Desantis doing badly means he's coming back like an abusive husband to beat them up some more.
Get woke go broke actually worked. After a decade of failure Disney didn't have enough money leftover to bribe Congress to extend the copyrights like they did in the past.
The woke shit is killing them early, but there is no escaping the fact the White demographic who built, maintained the country, and watched the classics, kept so many cultural institutions and arts going, etc, are quickly dwilndling in numbers.
Who is going to keep a movie industry going? Who will shop at garden centers to keep a market for the several tens of thousands of cultivars of cultivated fine plants ( ex : the AOS bleeding members )? Chess clubs? Animal breeds kept as pets? ( cats, dogs, horses, parrots, finches, pheasants, fishes. etc. ) Orchestral music, heck, most music? Paintings? Sculptures amd architecture? The books industry? Our national and regional languages?
Not sub-Saharian Africans, the booming demographic trippling each generation.
It's the entirety of Western civilizations that are dying.
I thought it was just Mickey Mouse
And just the "Steamboat Willie" version
Yep. Some people will inevitably overlook that and try making content with newer iterations of those characters, and those people will get sued into the Seventh Circle of Hell, because Disney are still the most litigious motherfuckers on Earth.
"Better not put fingers and gloves on that fucking cartoon mouse, or I swear to god!.." - 12 Highly paid Disney lawyers.
I think that probably stems from Walt losing Oswald way back when.
A lot of the Disney critics like to lionize Walt and try to say he'd be spinning in his grave if he could see the state of things now, but I'm a lot more skeptical. Maybe he wouldn't be a fan of the woke content, but as far as the legal stuff goes, I think he was always at the root of that.
Yes, and that would be because of getting burnt when he was just first starting out. So the modern company inherited that DNA and amplified it.
That being said, I remember my grade school let an older kid paint a picture of Elliot on the wall in the basement next to the library when Pete's Dragon first came out. I wonder if it's still there?
For my part, there are lots of reasons why I don't care.
First, they're irrevocably tainted by the company itself. Second, it's only a small proportion of the overall total of stuff they've managed to unnaturally extend far past the actual copyright date. Third, those cartoons sucked, they were only ever popular from the sheer novelty of being animated.
As for why it's not being reported... the purpose of the media is twofold. To push propaganda and to demoralize. This would serve neither purpose.
They are trying to hide it. Because if it gets too wide spread, you can have Mikey saying trannies are mentally retarded and climate cultists are morons and Disney will be powerless to do anything about it.
See following https://twitter.com/DougTenNapel/status/1742044160964677903/photo/1
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.
I want to write this out because I think there's actually a huge gaming opportunity here.
The creators of both "Bendy & The Ink Machine" and "Cuphead" should be the people to exploit this the most.