In other words, in the United States, January 1 is not only the beginning of the new year, but also the time when old literary, musical, and artistic works enter the public domain.
This means that the copyright of some works of art is no longer protected and has officially become the cultural wealth of all mankind.
In this year's list, there is a heavyweight animated character - Mickey Mouse.
(Mickey Mouse Mickey, image via BBC)
In 1928, the animated short "Steamboat Willie" aired, and Mickey Mouse (Mickey) was born.
Nearly 100 years later, Mickey is one of the most famous IPs in the world. The field is involved in movies, TV dramas, goods, theme parks......
helped Disney create hundreds of billions of dollars in wealth.
(Mickey's evolutionary history, picture from the Internet)
In order to keep this little mouse that can only lay golden eggs, Disney has thought of many ways.
Originally, the image of Mickey Mouse in "Steamboat Willie" was supposed to enter the public domain in 1984, but the Disney Company pushed the U.S. Congress to pass the Copyright Act of 1976, which postponed the public ownership of "Steamboat Willie" until 2004.
In 1998, Disney once again pushed for the implementation of the Royalty Term Extension Act, delaying public ownership until today, a full 40 years later than originally scheduled.
As a result, the Royalty Term Extension Act of 1998 has also been referred to as the "Mickey Mouse Protection Act".
(Schematic diagram)
Now, Disney has finally released the image of Mickey Mouse in "Steamboat Willie".
This is not because Disney is open-minded, but mainly because it will not be worth the loss if it continues to be postponed like this......
But netizens don't care about this, over the years, Mickey Mouse has been like a toy that has been shelved, netizens want to play with memes, but they are worried that the "strongest legal department on the surface" will come to the door.
Now everyone is finally liberated......
In the past two days, netizens began to post Mickey's memes vigorously to experience the "pleasure of humiliating a large company".
January 1, Mickey: "Public domain, I'm coming~"
(Image from X)
People played all kinds of "Mickey Hell jokes", as if to make up for the regret of missing that year:
Mickey drove his boat into the World Trade Center Towers.
(Image from X)
Mickey drove a boat to block the Suez Canal.
(Image from X)
Mitch is driving the submarine Titan and encounters an implosion.
(Image from X)
Mitch admits to playing a key role in the JFK assassination case......
(Image from X)
In short, what you want to do, what you don't want to do, Disney won't let you do it, Mickey has done it with the hands of netizens......
(Image from X)
"Tell my little one Meeska, Mooska!"
(Image from X)
Netizens also lamented that on the first day of 2024, Mickey seems to have been sucked into a black hole where all discipline has been lost......
On this day, January 1, 2024, at 12:00 p.m., Mickey Mouse entered the public domain.
(Image from X)
Some netizens complained:
This TM is not Mickey free, this is Mickey's misstep......
(Image from X)
Netizens can be regarded as a solution to the "pain of lovesickness" for many years, and compared with the spoofs of netizens, the artists have done an amazing ......
On the very day that Mickey entered the public domain, a trailer for a horror movie called "Mickey's Mouse Trap" appeared on Youtube.
It's about a lady who held a surprise birthday queue in the playground, and as a result, the screen turned, and a projector played the picture of "Steamboat Willie".
(Trailer screen, image from Youtube)
Immediately afterwards, a knife-wielding murderer dressed in Mickey's costume appears and chases the protagonist and his party......
(Trailer screen, image from Youtube)
Three lines of big red characters appeared on the screen,
"A place to play, a place full of friends, a place to hunt. ”
According to the director, this is the first-ever live-action Mickey Mouse comedy horror feature film.
(Trailer screen, image from Youtube)
Similarly, another film director, Steven LaMorte, has announced the filming of the horror film "Steamboat Willy" this spring, which tells the story of a sadistic rat who brutally abuses a group of unsuspecting ferry passengers.
The director said that "Steamboat Willie" has brought joy to generations, but tearing away the cloak of happiness, the film also has great potential to bring fear......
(Concept art of the movie, image from X)
The film industry is also not idle, with one company announcing a horror game called "Infestation: Origins", in which people face off against all sorts of evil, twisted versions of classic characters and urban legends, including Mickey Mouse.
(Screenshot of the game, image from Steam)
Seeing that childhood memories are about to turn into psychological shadows, netizens have also complained:
When Disney executives saw that Mickey Mouse had made 80 different rat killer movies......
(Image from X)
As an aside, netizens are also worried, after all, if you want to talk about "terrifying Mickey Mouse", I'm afraid no one is more professional than Disney......
(Disney's concept design for the horror version of Mickey Mouse, image from X)
But then again, while it's now popular online to spoof Mickey Mouse, it's important to note that only Mickey Mouse from the first version of Steamboat Willie is in the public domain.
(Allow spoof of Mickey Mouse, image from X)
In other words, other versions of Mickey are still copyrighted.
Some netizens didn't understand the situation and began to issue Mickey Mouse's NTF to make a lot of money.
(Image from X)
The result was soon warned by netizens:
"You used the wrong Mickey Mouse. ”
(Image from X)
I hope this bold guy will pray to God soon, after all, getting God's forgiveness is much easier than winning a Disney lawsuit......