Mickey Mouse and the copyright law.
"Its kind of fun to do the impossible"
-Walt Disney
The first copyright act of America was enacted in 1790 and granted authors the exclusive right to publish and vend “maps, charts, and books for a term of 14 years renewable for an additional 14-year term if the author was alive at the end of the first term. Two centuries later this protection has been extended to almost 100 years. The credit for this change goes to a very popular cartoon character named Mickey Mouse.
Mickey Mouse was first introduced in an animated short film by Walt Disney titled “Steamboat Willy” in the year 1928. At the time of introduction, the Copyright Act of 1909 gave the character of Mickey Mouse copyright protection for a total of 56 years ending in 1984. Under the 1909 act work can be copyrighted for a 28-year period and then renewed for another 28-year period for a total of 56 years. Due to Disney’s lobbying efforts in 1976, Congress substantially increased the term of protection from the 1909 scheme of 28 years + 28 years (renewal) to a term consisting of the lifetime of the author and fifty years after the author’s death. The act also created a 75-year term from the date of publication for works of Corporate authorship. This effectively pushed Mickey Mouse’s copyright protection from 1984 to 2003.
With the term nearing its end in 2003 Disney stepped up its lobbying and was instrumental in the introduction of The Sonny Bono Act (Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998) sometimes jokingly called Mickey Mouse Protection Act. This Act extended copyright protection from 50 years after the death of the author to 70 years after the death of the author. It further extended copyrights for corporate works to 95 years from the year of first publication or 120 years from the year of creation, whichever expires first. This Act has further pushed Mickey Mouse’s copyright protection till 2023. With 2023 just a year away It is highly unlikely that Disney will let Mickey Mouse enter the Public Domain considering that it is a multi-billion dollar franchise.
