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By Christian Rodriguez ('23)
According to the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, “properties exhibit copyright protection for 70 years following the conceiver's passing.” Since Winnie the Pooh license has since expired, indie creatives like members of Jagged Edge Productions are completely legally eligible to use beloved characters in whichever manner they devise. In the near future, we're getting closer to the eventual release of a Winnie the Pooh horror flick!
The sun is also setting on various icons; like the cast of Alice in Wonderland alongside King Kong and even Conan the Barbarian. The copyrights on these characters are no longer legally defended and are now available to everyone. Additionally, public domain will soon swallow up an early version of Mickey Mouse by next year, and later in 2034, both Superman and Batman will lose copyright protections.
The entirety of Looney Tunes will soon follow suit towards the end of the 2030’s and with it the majority of other classic Warner Bros media. Of course the license owners have taken several measures to avoid this loss, most notably the Disney empire has “donated” to Congress over the years. Wink, wink, on the hinted bribery scandal! Open Secrets, a website which records American political donations, noted that the Walt Disney company "gifted" Congress about 4 million dollars in 2022 alone!
Steamboat Willie, an early version of Mickey Mouse is one of the many Disney characters set to appear in the public domain in 2024!
Photo courtesy of Ars Technica
Cinema and music are slowly, but surely, getting tallied onto the realm of public domain, and as a result, only leaves recent releases in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's protection list. Video games will last a good century of avoiding being public domain before being absorbed like former cartoons and caped crusaders in the past. As proclaimed by Albright Ips, “Super Mario Bros. was released in 1985, and has since been under copyright. The term is 120 years from creation.”
Currently said protection is repeatedly ignored, way more than other media video games are pirated and copied. There exists a sub-culture of gaming where old unplayable games are readjusted for use. It's legality has been argued ruthlessly in the United States, but in other nations it’s pretty common to disregard copyright protection. Claiming such actions as "stealing property" is an uncalled depiction just because the possessions in question weren’t available in the first place. Furthermore emulations are completely free and don’t make users cough up even a penny for their content.
Super Mario Bros. is one of the video games that will stand the test of time with public domain until 2080!
Photo courtesy of IGN
These made up worlds and characters are individual celebrations of creators originality, and their rights don’t belong to a small group of stockholders, but to the future generations of creators. Creation lives within everyone, and companies are essentially gatekeeping their characters and not allowing up-and-coming creators to gain reference or knowledge in their beginning steps towards artistic and creative growth!
Cover photo courtesy of Copyright User
Banner photo courtesy of Wikipedia
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