Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

As the most representative image of Disney, Mickey Mouse is nicknamed "boss" by fans in China. However, as the Boss's 95th birthday approaches and the 95-year copyright protection period approaches, Disney may lose its exclusive rights to Mickey Mouse.

Although the image of Mickey Mouse was created by Walt Disney, and the copyright has been owned by the Disney Company since then, according to the copyright Protection Law of the United States, the duration of such ownership is 95 years. The copyright of Mickey Mouse's works will enter the public domain, will no longer be protected by law, and can be used by the public at will and re-created.

The image of Mickey Mouse was born in 1928, which means that from 2024, even Disney, the "strongest law", can no longer stop people from creating Mickey Mouse.

Can you use Mickey Mouse when it is out of date? This "almost out-of-date" Mickey Mouse image is not the most familiar image of Disneyland Mickey, but Disney's original Mickey Mouse in the 1928 black-and-white animated film Steamboat Willie. Most people are not familiar with this version of Mickey Mouse. In today's public aesthetic, this version of Mickey Mouse is not so cute because it is too close to the biological characteristics of the mouse.

Sketch of the original image of Mickey Mouse in ▲ | wikipedia

Since 1928, the image of Mickey Mouse has been iterated according to the aesthetics of the times. Disney sold Mickey's image on a variety of peripheral products, a business model that was avant-garde at the time, making Mickey one of the most profitable cartoon characters in the world.

In March 2021, WikiMili ranked the 50 most profitable IP in the world according to the financial reports of listed companies and third-party statistics. Mickey Mouse IP ranked fourth on the list with a total income of US $80.3 billion.

▲ image of Mickey Mouse in the 1950s | Disney official website

Before the copyright expires, the use of Mickey Mouse's artistic image usually requires the permission of the right holder. For example, if Wang wants to insert a 1928 Mickey Mouse portrait into his novel, he must first contact Disney's attorney and discuss the specific fees and details of the license.

If it uses the image without permission, it will face a lawsuit from Disney. For example, Zhang, an illustrator and an avid Mickey Mouse fan, may face a lawsuit for infringement of his adaptation right if he makes minor changes to Mickey's image and provides illustration services.

After the work enters the public domain, the private right of the work is released, that is to say, the public's use of the work is no longer restricted by legal norms related to copyright protection. After expiration, the above use and adaptation are free to grow.

However, the specific rights of copyright are not all the property rights of the work (such as the right of reproduction, the right of distribution, etc.), but also include the personal right of the work, such as the right of publication, the right of signature, the right of modification and the right to protect the integrity of the work. Under normal circumstances, the provisions on the copyright term in the copyright laws (copyright laws) of various countries only focus on copyright property rights, but do not include the personal rights of works, so "adaptation is not miscompilation". I am afraid that Disney will be blamed for arbitrarily changing and vilifying the image of Mickey Mouse.

Copyright is good, but there is also a time limit. In our view, it is only natural for authors to enjoy copyright in their own works, but why should the law add a time limit to the right to make money from their own works?

In fact, copyright protection law should not only consider the interests of the author, copyright is like a balance, one end is the creator, the other is the public.

First of all, the emergence of a large number of excellent literary and artistic works is inseparable from the intellectual work of the creators. from the perspective of utilitarianism, the best way to stimulate creative enthusiasm is to set up material rewards-creators contribute to the market with intellectual achievements. the market gives back the creator's rich material wealth, and the cycle on one side of the balance works normally.

However, on the other hand, as the silhouette of human spiritual civilization, literary works are inseparable from the nourishment of social life, and their essence is the spiritual reflection of sensitive individual life experience. Since it comes from social life, it cannot always be imprisoned by private rights and become private property.

At first glance, there seems to be nothing wrong with permanent copyright, but something is wrong if you think about it carefully. If the copyright will never be unsealed, it means that in another 1000 years, we will remake the Swordsman, and every time we say, "Confucius once said," we will have to find out who owns the copyright and then apply for permission to use it. At that time, the descendants of Confucius did not know which generation they had passed on. By the time the copyright issue was settled, the crew could break up and go home.

Any form of monopoly (including the monopoly of knowledge) is not conducive to market prosperity, literary and artistic works also have the attribute of public goods, such as let the author earn enough money, and then enrich the spiritual world of the public for the purpose of public welfare.

Taking our country as an example, the protection period of the property rights of general works is "the author's life and fifty years after his death, ending on December 31 of the fiftieth year after the author's death". The term of protection of a work made by a legal person or other organization or a work copyrighted by a legal person or other organization shall be 50 years from the date of its first publication.

Thanks to the limited copyright protection period, we can enjoy such a rich cultural life.

In fact, the copyright ban has been lifted twice, and the public can finally use Mickey Mouse in their works at will, but it is not a good thing for Disney, and they naturally do not want to lose their cash cow. In fact, this is the third time Disney has encountered a copyright crisis related to Mickey Mouse, which has been successfully renewed by the strongest Justice.

The image of Mickey Mouse, who was born in 1928, was initially protected by copyright for only 56 years in the 1909 copyright Act of the United States, but under the promotion of Disney Law, the copyright law of the United States was amended twice. then with the passage and amendment of the copyright Act of 1976 and the copyright extension Act of 1998, Mickey Mouse's copyright protection continues to this day.

In the 1970s, when Mickey Mouse's 56-year deadline was approaching, under the lobbying of Disney, the United States Congress passed a resolution to extend the copyright period, changing the copyright protection period to the creator's lifetime, plus 50 years after death, the company's copyright was changed to 75 years after the work was published.

More than ten years have passed, and in 1998, when the last copyright renewal was about to expire, Disney lobbied again, causing Congress to extend the copyright term for the second time. According to the latest copyright law passed in the United States in 1998, the copyright period of works created after 1923 has been extended to 70 years after the creator's death, and the copyright term of the company has been extended to 95 years.

Although Disney legal Affairs has been jokingly called "the strongest legal service on the surface" because of its powerful power to turn decay into magic, the expiration of the copyright of Mickey Mouse this time seems to be a foregone conclusion, and the image has been widely discussed in the public domain. It seems that the "strongest legal affairs on the surface" will not be able to recover this time.

However, in addition to copyright protection, there is also a way of trademark protection for the protection of artistic image. The Disney Company has applied for a trademark for its artistic image as early as in the jurisdictions of various countries, and the trademark system is operable and permanent in the period of protection. in theory, as long as it is renewed on time, the exclusive right to use the trademark can always exist. However, the vitality of the trademark lies in its use. at present, China's Trademark Law stipulates the trademark revocation system, that is, when the trademark right holder does not use a trademark for three consecutive years without good reason, the trademark can be revoked because of the application of others. Trademark rights are invalid.

Disney has applied for a variety of trademarks for the image of Mickey Mouse, and it can be said that any shape that looks like Mickey can be counted in the trademark.

In fact, the above trademark has summed up the abstract generalization of various versions of Mickey Mouse. Mickey Mouse's work entered the public domain in 1928 as a small part of the Mickey Mouse series, which seems to be sprinkling water to Disney Co. it's not worth mentioning.

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: fruit Shell (ID:Guokr42), author: Enhuai Editor: flip

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