Disney's 'Steamboat Willie' version of Mickey Mouse is now in the public domain. Here's what that means.
Disney’s iconic character finally belongs to the public — sort of.
The earliest known version of Disney’s Mickey Mouse entered the public domain on Jan. 1, nearly 100 years after the iconic character first appeared in the 1928 short film Steamboat Willie.
Under U.S. law, a copyright can be held for 95 years before it becomes available for public use. Disney’s copyright protection on the Steamboat Willie Mickey Mouse expired at midnight on Dec. 31.
But this version isn't exactly the Mickey Mouse you've come to know. The Associated Press described the nonspeaking boat captain as “more mischievous” and “rat-like.”
“He's more rascally and rough,” NPR said, noting the character’s roots in the blackface minstrel shows of the era.
The Mickey in Steamboat Willie spends most of his time turning unwilling barnyard animals into musical instruments. Nonetheless, it’s exciting for creators and those who study public domain law
“This is it. This is Mickey Mouse,” Jennifer Jenkins, a law professor and director of the Center for the Study of the Public Domain at Duke Law School, told the AP. ”I kind of feel like the pipe on the steamboat, like expelling smoke. It’s so exciting.”
Disney fought for years to prevent its Mickey copyright from expiring.
In 1998, the company was among those to successfully lobby Congress to extend protection for copyrights from 50 years after the death of the author or 75 years for corporate-owned work like Disney’s Mickey Mouse to 70 and 95, respectively — a law that derisively became known as the “Mickey Mouse Protection Act.”
What can creators do with Steamboat Willie?
Almost anything. You are free to copy, share and build upon the original Mickey Mouse as seen in Steamboat Willie.
According to Jenkins, story elements in the film are fair game too, open for anyone to share, adapt or remix.
Disney holds a trademark on Mickey Mouse, which means you cannot use the character in a way that misleads people into thinking it was created or endorsed by the company. Unlike copyrights, trademarks do not expire under U.S. law.
Newer versions of Mickey Mouse remain under copyright, so you cannot use more recent iterations of the Mickey Mouse character like those seen in the 1940 movie Fantasia or Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, which first began airing on the Disney Channel in 2006, until those copyrights expire.
“More modern versions of Mickey will remain unaffected by the expiration of the Steamboat Willie copyright, and Mickey will continue to play a leading role as a global ambassador for the Walt Disney Company in our storytelling, theme park attractions and merchandise,” the company said in a statement. “We will, of course, continue to protect our rights in the more modern versions of Mickey Mouse and other works that remain subject to copyright, and we will work to safeguard against consumer confusion caused by unauthorized uses of Mickey and our other iconic characters.”
What other beloved characters have entered the public domain?
Plenty. In recent years, Dracula, Frankenstein, Robin Hood, Snow White, Cinderella and Alice in Wonderland have all entered the public domain.
In 2022, copyright protection for books featuring Sherlock Holmes and Winnie the Pooh expired.
As was the case with Disney and Mickey, the estate of Sherlock Holmes author Arthur Conan Doyle fought for years to keep Holmes and his sidekick, Dr. Watson, out of the public domain.
About eight months after copyright protection for Pooh expired, the trailer for the slasher film Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey was released. The film, which “follows Pooh and Piglet as they go on a rampage after Christopher Robin abandons them,” hit theaters in February 2023, and a sequel is expected to be released this year.
On Monday, the day copyright protection for Steamboat Willie expired, the trailer for a horror comedy featuring Mickey Mouse dropped.
“We just wanted to have fun with it all,” Jamie Bailey, director of Mickey’s Mouse Trap, said in a statement to the Hollywood Reporter. “I mean it’s Steamboat Willie’s Mickey Mouse murdering people. It’s ridiculous. We ran with it and had fun doing it, and I think it shows.”
Bailey's not alone. According to Variety, production on an untitled horror-comedy in which a “sadistic mouse will torment a group of unsuspecting ferry passengers” is set to begin this spring.
