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Copyright of Mickey Mouse

Canadian and American copyright laws are different. What happens when Mickey Mouse becomes part of public domain?

By Brian AnonymousPublished 5 years ago 3 min read
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I recently discovered something pretty crazy when I was randomly exploring the Internet. Apparently Mickey Mouse is already public domain in Canada. I know some of you think what does this matter? Who cares?

Think about how large an icon Mickey Mouse is and how he's basically been a symbol of the now gigantic empire of Disney for the longest time. Being part of the Canadian public domain means that Canadians can use Mickey's image freely without worry of copyright infringements.

That's crazy, and I don't think a lot of Canadians realize that the character is part of Canada's public domain. To some of you, this news might seem outrageous. How is this even possible?

Well under Canadian copyright laws, the copyright for works of artists expires 50 years after the death of the creator. Since Walt Disney died in 1966, Mickey Mouse was silently placed into Canada's public domain back in 2017.

My American readers have to be a little more patient. The laws are a little different in the US. For the US, instead of 50 years after the death of the creator, it's 70 years. This number has been fluctuating throughout the years, probably because of lobbyists like Disney trying to extend their rights for characters like Mickey Mouse.

Canada somehow lucked out, but some American lobbyists are obviously going to try to change Canadian laws. Who's going to blame them when characters like Mickey Mouse are still extremely profitable.

Now the question is how can we as Canadians use this law in our favor? Well, as long as we aren't profiting from the work outside of Canada, we're good to go. Canadians can sell the likeness of Mickey Mouse within Canada. When using Mickey's image outside of the country, things start getting a little murky. You can probably argue the use of Mickey Mouse's likeness outside of Canada if you aren't making a profit off of it. I'm not totally sure how that would work out.

Whatever the case may be, it doesn't seem that there's a lot of people using Mikey's likeness on anything in Canada. Maybe there's still a shroud of fear that Disney will sue our butts if we do such a crazy thing. Maybe they don't realize the possibilities of using Mickey's likeness on things, or even using Mickey as a template for creating different art pieces.

You could technically create and or modify Mickey Mouse to your own liking and sell it without having to pay Disney for royalties or fear that they will send you a cease and desist order. I remember back in the day there used to be tons of people that used Mickey as a canvas for creating interesting pieces. They would no longer have to worry about repercussions.

Sometimes even just knowing the fact that you don't have to worry about copyright infringement is just nice. It's always nice for artists to have artistic freedom to do whatever they want. Usually that's when artists can flourish.

Mickey Mouse is special because everyone knows who he is and he's been an icon for children for so many generations. There's so much kids and adults can create with his image.

The funny thing is I think Disney even realizes that Mickey is part of public domain because in Canada, we barely see Mickey Mouse representing Disney anymore. We just see that famous Disney logo, but the mouse isn't really associated anymore.

I think this is pretty interesting stuff, and I hope people in Canada start taking advantage of it. It may seem like a cheap stunt to use Mickey to sell your product, but hey, Disney became a large corporation because of that mouse, so why not?

I'm all for copyrights, but after a certain period of time, it's about time for the art pieces to become public domain and enjoyed by all rather than profited by already wealthy corporations. I hardly think Disney will suffer as a consequence when they have so many rights to other intellectual properties.

pop culture
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About the Creator

Brian Anonymous

I have tons of opinions that change constantly. I watch a lot of movies and play video games. There are some articles on my struggles with languages and dance as well.

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