Abstract
The Walt Disney Company is one of the most powerful and influential media companies in the world that has revolutionized animated films. Steamboat Willie, the cartoon featuring the first version of Mickey Mouse, was released in 1928 and is set to enter the public domain on January 1, 2024. This iconic character has stayed out of the public domain for nearly a century because of Congress’s extension of copyright duration in response to lobbying efforts by Disney and other copyright holders. Although Disney has not made another effort to lobby Congress for an extension to its copyrights, Disney’s development of trademark rights over Steamboat Willie may effectively keep the earliest incarnation of Mickey Mouse out of the public domain. However, what are the implications of Mickey Mouse and other beloved characters entering the public domain? This Note argues that Disney should be able to keep copyrights—or some other type of exclusive rights—to Mickey Mouse and other beloved Disney characters because poorly made or inappropriate versions of the works will affect the public’s judgments about the works’ quality and meaning, and therefore their underlying value, diluting and tarnishing Disney’s image. This Note proposes that Disney should lobby Congress to pass legislation that resembles Mexico’s Article 173 of the Federal Copyright Law, which would provide typical real-life human, fictional, or symbolic characters copyright protection for indefinite, successive five-year periods, thus successfully keeping Mickey Mouse and other beloved Disney characters from entering the public domain.
Recommended Citation
Marisol Jimenez Gastelum,
Every Story Has a Beginning, But What About an End?: Disney’s Expiring Copyrights,
56 Loy. L.A. L. Rev. 1397
(2023).
Available at: https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/llr/vol56/iss4/8
