Just how far can someone push public domain in cases like Mickey Mouse?You can market and sell anything with the name ‘Mickey Mouse’ on it just as long as you show its Steamboat Willie related?
As far as I can tell, Mickey Mouse the name is copyrighted in '28 so the name is free game regardless.
Steamboat Willie, along with anything else appearing in it, is public domain. This means you can do anything you want with the media. This also means you can remix, change, or modify it however you want. You can also make new designs inspired by it.The big concern is that you can't do anything inspired by anything outside public domain, and anything very similar to non-public work is likely going to be viewed as being inspired by copyrighted works. It's why a lot of people are sticking with black & white, because nobody can say it's inspired by later Disney versions if it doesn't have any of those later details. Disney can still sue (and might try to sue since they're attempting to keep Steamboat Willie as a trademark) but that doesn't mean the are right. Just that the court system is fucked up in U.S.A.The red tips of the shoes might be pushing it here, but everything else is fine. Assuming the Mickey Mouse logo appears that way in the Steamboat Willie cartoon.
>>147142983>copywritedThomas is a fool who doesn't know how to spell copyright.
>>147142983My understanding is you have to be very careful and leave absolutely no question that you are using Mickey Mouse from Steamboat Willie or the other two films that are now public domain. Mickey is not just a character, but the logo and trademark of Disney, so if you were to use a depiction of him not from the 3 PD films, or just the name with no image associated with it, there is the potential for Disney to sue. Hell they’ll probably still sue if you’re making money, even if you play by the rules - not that they’d expect to win, but they could absolutely bury you in litigation fees and waste your time in a prolonged court battle until you get fed up and knock it off.
>>147143100It's not really pushing it at this point because there were print advertisements of Mickey in color by 1929, with him in the red shorts and yellow boots
>>147142983Pretty much
>>147142983Those shoes don't look half bad.
>>147145404You're right, they look all bad
>>147145898DOHOHOHOHO!
