The copyright of Mickey Mouse expires, what else is there in the "strongest legal affairs"?

As the most representative image of Disney, Mickey Mouse is nicknamed "boss" by fans in China. However, as the 95th birthday of the "boss" approaches, the 95 -year -old copyright protection period is coming. By then, Disney may lose the proprietary copyright of Mickey Mouse.

Although the image of Mickey Mouse was created by Walter Disney, the copyright has been owned by Disney since then. However, according to the Copyright Protection Law of the United States, this life is in 1995. Once in 1995, the copyright of the Mickey Mouse's works will enter The public domain is no longer protected by law, and can be used by the public and carried out secondary creation.

The image of Mickey Mouse was born in 1928, which means that since 2024, even the "strongest legal" Disney, it can't stop everyone to create rice mice.

Can the expired rice mice be used casually?

The image of Mickey Mouse, which is about to expire this time, is not the most familiar Disneyland Mickey image, but Disney's first -generation Mickey Mouse in the 1928 black and white animated film "Willie Ship". Most people are not familiar with this version of Mickey Mouse. From today's Volkswagen Aesthetic, the image of the rice mouse in this version is not so cute because it is too close to the biological characteristics of the mouse.

The first generation of rice mouse image sketches ｜ wikipedia

Since 1928, the image of Mickey Mouse has continued to iterate according to the aesthetics of the times. Disney printed Mickey's image on various peripheral products. This avant -garde business model at that time made Mickey one of the most profitable cartoon characters in the world.

In March 2021, Wikimili arranged the 50 most profitable IPs in the world based on the financial report and third -party statistics of the listed company. The rice mouse's IP income reached 80.3 billion US dollars, ranking fourth in ranking.

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

Before the copyright expires, the use of Mickey Mouse art image usually needs to obtain permission of right holders. For example, if Wang wants to insert the avatar of Mickey Mouse in 1928 in his novel, he must first contact Disney legal affairs and discuss the specific expenses and details of the license.

If the image is not permitted, it will face Disney's prosecution. For example, Zhang is an illustrator and a fanatic fan of Mickey Mouse. Zhang Mou made a small change of Mickey's image and provided illustration services to the infringement of the adaptation of adaptation.

After the work enters the public domain, the private rights imprisonment of the work can be lifted, that is, the public's use of the work is no longer limited by legal norms on the protection of copyright protection. After expiration, the above use and adaptation can grow freely.

However, the specific rights of copyrights are not all of the property rights (such as replication rights, issuance rights, etc.), but also include the right to the human body, such as the right to publish, the right to sign, the right to modify, and protect the complete rights of the works. Under normal circumstances, the Copyright Law (Copyright Law) of various countries only target copyright property rights for copyright, and does not include the right to copywriting. Therefore, "adaptation is not a mess". of.

Although the copyright is good, there is a deadline for a period

In our opinion, the author enjoys the copyright of his own work, but why does the law add a period of time to make money to make money by his own work?

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

First of all, the emergence of a large number of outstanding literary works is inseparable from the intellectual labor of the author. From the perspective of utilitarianism, the best way to stimulate creative enthusiasm is nothing more than setting material rewards -creators contribute to the market with intellectual achievements, market feedback creators The generous material wealth, the cycle on the balance of the balance is operating normally.

However, from another aspect, literary and artistic works, as one side shadow of human spiritual civilization, are inseparable from the nourishment of social life. The essence is the spiritual reflection of sensitive individual life experience. Since it comes from social life, it cannot always be always cannot always be The privileged rights are imprisoned and become private.

The permanent copyright seems to have no problem at first thought, but if you think about it, it is a bit wrong. If the copyright will never be unblocking, it means that we will re -shoot "Wulin Wai Zhuan" for another 1,000 years. Every time we say "Zi Zeng said", you have to clarify who the copyright is on the hand, and then apply for a license. At that time, the descendants of Confucius did not know which generation to pass. When the copyright issues were done, the crew could also go home.

Any form of monopoly (including the monopoly of knowledge) is not conducive to market prosperity. Literary and artistic works also have the attributes of public products. When letting the author earn enough money, and then the public welfare, the public's spiritual world is enriched.

Taking our country as an example, the property rights protection period of general works is "the author's life and its death for 50 years, and the fifty years of the author's death on December 31". The protection period of the work of legal person or other organizations, a legal person or other organizations with copyright is 50 years from the date of the first publication.

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

In fact, I have been living twice

Copyright lifts the ban, the public can finally use Mickey Mouse in the work, but it is not good for Disney, and they are naturally unwilling to lose their cash cow. In fact, this is the third time Disney has encountered a copyright crisis related to Mickey Mouse, and has been successfully renewed by the "strongest legal affairs" before. The image of the Yuanzumi mouse was born in 1928. It was first protected by 56 years in the "1909 Copyright Law" in the United States. However, with the promotion of Disney legal affairs, the US copyright law was revised twice, and then " The 1976 Copyright Law "and the passage and amendment of the" Copyright Protection Period Extension Act "in 1998, the copyright protection of Mickey Mouse has continued to today.

In the 1970s, the 56 -year limit of Mickey Mouse was approaching. Under the lobbying of Disney, the US Congress passed the resolution of extending the copyright period and changed the copyright protection period to the creator for life. 75 years after the work.

More than ten years have passed. In 1998, the copyright of the last time was expired again. Disney once again caused the Congress to extend the copyright period for the second time. According to the latest copyright law adopted by the United States in 1998, the copyright period created by 1923 was extended to 70 years after the death of the creator, and the company's copyright period was extended to 95 years.

Although Disney's legal affairs were nicknamed "the strongest legal affairs on the surface" because of its decay of decay into a magical action, this time the expiration of Mickey Mouse copyright seems to have become a foregone conclusion, and the image has also been widely discussed in the public field. It seems that "the strongest legal affairs on the surface" this time is also unable to return to heaven.

However, in addition to copyright protection, the protection of artistic image also has a way to protect trademark protection. Disney has applied for trademarks on its artistic image as early as the country's regions. The trademark system has permanent permanentness in the protection period. Theoretically, as long as it is renewed on time, the dedicated rights of trademarks can always be survived. However, the vitality of the trademark lies in the use of the trademark. At present, the "Trademark Law" in my country stipulates the trademark cancellation system, that is, when the trademark right holder has no proper reasons for a trademark for three consecutive years, the trademark can be revoked because of the application of others. invalid.

Disney has applied for a variety of trademarks for the image of Mickey Mouse. It can be said that the shape of Mickey's appearance can be counted as a trademark.

The above trademarks have actually gathered the abstract summary of each version of the Mickey Mouse image. In 1928, Mickey Mouse works were entered the public field as a small part of the image of the rice mouse series. It's right.

Author: En Huai

Edit: Turn over

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