"Disney's Rights to Young Mickey Mouse may be Wrong"

by Joseph Menn

One of the greatest worldwide icons that has lasted the test of time is Mickey Mouse.
The eminent rodent that has brought happiness in the eyes of children over the years now faces an immense dilemma. It turns out that the lovable childhood idol is confronted with the notion that it may not belong to Walt Disney or the company itself due to copyright laws.
This issue arose when a former employee of the company discovery that there was no copyright law protecting the original Mickey “Steamboat Willie,” which is distinctively different from today’s version of Mickey Mouse. The debate was fueled on the idea that the copyright does not clarify who it belongs to because there is no name place before the copyright. Since the credits did not specifically stated who copyright ownership belongs to individuals believe that this edition of Mickey should be under public domain.
Public Domain is when it is free to use by the public and does not really require permission to incorporate the idea or symbol in other works. With this in mind, opening up the original Mickey as a property of public domain is not an unreasonable assumption because Disney has other characters that are open for free use like Bambi and Peter Pan. Many individuals feel that Mickey should be freely used by the public along with other characters because most of Disney’s prominent figures like Cinderella, Pinocchio, Pooh and Snow White were created by others though Disney has a strong protection these characters with copyright.
There have been many researches conducted, debates and papers written over this topic done by college students and professors. But Disney refuses to listen to the arguments and is equipped with a great deal of lawyers’ preventive measures of not taking this matter to court by threatening to sue individuals. The company already known for filing lawsuits against individuals who broke copyright laws, for example the company sued a home based business when a couple wore costumes of Eeyore and Tigger to a children’s party for one million dollars.
I thought this was a good article and I recall you mention this in class. I was surprised to learn that there were characters under public domain. I think the matter of Disney suing individuals for big sum of money is ridiculous and appalling, its sad when big corporations like Disney take advantage over helpless people.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-mickey22-2008aug22,0,3228580,full.story