It's finally happening: After nearly a century, Mickey Mouse is finally free from Disney's copyright shackles. The original versions of the iconic cartoon character, appearing in Steamboat Willie and the silent version of Plane Crazy, will enter the U.S. public domain on January 1, 2024 (along with an early version of Mickey Mouse). The protections surrounding Mickey remain convoluted, but today is a moment that public domain advocates have been waiting for decades - and there's plenty of other exciting new content.

The Center for the Study of the Public Domain (Center for the Study of the Public Domain) at Duke University Law School continues to compile famous works whose copyright protection has expired in the United States today. The list includes recordings from 1923 and works in other media published in 1928. These include:

D.H. Lawrence's scandal-plagued and censored Lady Chatterley's Lover

"Orlando" by Virginia Woolf

J.M. Barrie's play "Peter Pan" (also known as theBoyWhoWouldn'tGrowUp).

Bertolt Brecht's "The Three Penny Opera" and Erich Maria Remarque's "All Quieton the Western Front" (All Quieton the Western Front), both original German versions

Original German version of Bobby Darin's song "Mack the Knife"

"The Dark Princess" by W.E.B. Du Bois

"The House at Pooh Corner" by A.A. Milne, which introduces the character Tigger

The film "The Man Who Laughs" adapted from the work of Victor Hugo, which is widely known for inspiring the appearance of Batman villain The Joker

Musical composition "Let's Fall in Love" by Cole Porter

Woodcut of the Tower of Babel by M.C.Escher

You can download a large number of public domain recordings at the Library of Congress National Jukebox. If you've been inspired by the above media or other works that entered the public domain this year, Techdirt is hosting its sixth annual Public Domain Game Jam to celebrate games based on these works.

Of course, copyright law is particularly complex when it comes to an ongoing character like Mickey Mouse. The public domain version of the character does not include major design changes from later works, such as Mickey's apprentice in 1940's Fantasia. In addition, no one can create false works and represent themselves as Disney works or official merchandise, because Mickey Mouse is also a registered trademark of Disney. Jennifer Jenkins, director of the Center for Public Domain Studies at Duke University, explained the law more fully on the Duke University blog:

https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/mickey/

The public domain should be the final home for any copyrighted work -- it's part of a compromise that recognizes the benefits of letting artists and thinkers control and profit from their works in the short term, while recognizing the benefits of being free to develop each other's ideas in the long term, a balance that Disney itself relies on when producing fairy tale adaptations like "Snow White" and "Cinderella." (This is also an important factor in allowing archivists to preserve old media after its creator has died or can no longer be found, as it allows copying without legal concerns - only a very small number of copyrighted works remain commercially valuable throughout the entire period of protection). However, in the United States, "Steamboat Willie" was frozen for 20 years due to the enactment of the "Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act," which was nicknamed the "Mickey Mouse Protection Act" because it delayed the time when "Steamboat Willie" entered the public domain. Despite the moniker, Disney isn't the only company lobbying for the bill's passage.

As a result, Mickey Mouse became a symbol of expanded copyright protections and, to varying degrees of fairness, Disney's vested interest in intellectual property law. For example, when Disney angered Republican politicians for criticizing Florida's "Don't Say Gay" law, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) proposed a plan to roll back nuclear intellectual property laws in the name of stripping "woke companies like Disney of special copyright protections." We'll likely see legal battles over the precise limits of public domain Mickey, just as we do with other characters like Sherlock Holmes -- but today is a good day to think about new uses for old media.