Steamboat Willie Entering The Public Domain

[SignDesign(her)]

Hello everyone, I am excited to see what will unfold for the sign industry when it comes to clients wanting to use Disney's Steam Boat Willie artwork. Do you have any predictions of what that will be like? I am aware that people have been producing illegal artwork from clients for decades, but now that this art is in public domain, it has changed a lot of things.

From my understanding, content can be used so long as the individual does not make their product or service "look like" Disney is endorsing it.
We saw the disaster of Winnie The Pooh entering the public domain in 2022, resulting in off-shoots like Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey horror movie.
Do you think that there will be other side effects from Steamboat Willie?

Update: As I was writing this thread and doing some quick searches -- it looks like there are already individuals making a horror video game: INFESTATION 88'

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1741858189904109781

Due to this company making work in 2023 or later, it may face a lawsuit from Disney because they started work on their character pre-2024. It is an interesting topic. What sort of other issues have you experienced or can you predict in 2024+?

 

[gnubler]

Thank effing god. I've been waiting patiently for DECADES to incorporate Steam Boat Willie into my designs and now the time has arrived!

 

[SignDesign(her)]

Thank effing god. I've been waiting patiently for DECADES to incorporate Steam Boat Willie into my designs and now the time has arrived!

Excited to see what cool content you can make now. If you make anything, I would love to see it.

 

[Signstein]

Does this count as cool content?

 

[SignDesign(her)]

Does this count as cool content?

I suppose, though it's not my cup of tea, haha. Interestingly, the theme of Mickey Mouse is going to change. For 100 years Mickey was playful and crafted to be happy go-getty. Now everyone is turning it on its head. I am sure some people will find it jarring and others will find it enjoyable.

 

[AndersHerp]

I don't think you are going to find much of Steam Boat Willie in the sign industry. Sure there will be a handful of people that end up printing him for some various job or another. But the fact that he is hitting the public domain really has very little impact on what most of us do day to day. I think more, he is going to appear in the social media sphere, in memes and AI content, etc.

 

[signbrad]

From my understanding, content can be used so long as the individual does not make their product or service "look like" Disney is endorsing it.
We saw the disaster of Winnie The Pooh entering the public domain in 2022, resulting in off-shoots like Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey horror movie.
Do you think that there will be other side effects from Steamboat Willie?

As you may know, Disney did not sue the filmmakers over the Pooh horror movie [1]. This is significant. Disney could probably have doomed the movie by simply throwing lots of legal money into a trademark infringement lawsuit. The movie was low-budget, after all. How could the movie, or the studio, have survived? But Disney chose not to litigate. And the movie company seemed to take care that the movie did not "look like" a Disney production, avoiding potential consumer confusion, which is, after all, the whole point of trademark protection. [2]

As more of Disney's copyrighted assets enter the public domain, this issue, which involves overlapping intellectual property protections, will be the subject of more court decisions. I am sure Disney will not challenge all uses of their trademarked fictional characters. They will probably pick their battles carefully, knowing that a lawsuit could backfire on them and set a precedent they don't want. Justice Scalia has already made clear (in Dastar v. Twentiath Century Fox, 2003) that the US Supreme Court will probably not allow companies to use trademark law as a kind of ersatz copyright protection [3] (they overruled a US District Court in their decision). Perhaps Disney thought it was prudent to wait for an easier target.

Trademark law, of course, does not prohibit "copying" per se, or all possible uses of a protected trademark (there is nominative fair use, for example, not to be confused with the fair use doctrine of copyright law}. The purpose of trademark law is to prevent confusion among consumers as to the source of goods or services.* It is copyright law that forbids copying (except for the very narrow fair use doctrine, which allows a reviewer to quote short passages from a book or show short scenes from a film). And copyright protection always ends automatically, whereas trademark protection can last forever.

So, when a work, or a fictional character, enters the public domain, is the public free to use it or not? Or, can it be protected from use forever by applying trademark law? Stay tuned.


[1] Screenrant.com

[2] Carlianna Dengel of Romano Law

[3] Wikipedia article on the court decision

* For example, if I write a history of the Ford Motor Company, I can use the word Ford, as well as the Ford logo in the book without permission, even though both the name and the logo are protected trademarks. I would just have to be careful not to give the impression that Ford is the originator, or even endorses the book. This is easily solved by a clear disclaimer. Or I could title the book something like, "Ford Has a Better Idea, an Unauthorized History."

 

[Boudica]

Thank effing god. I've been waiting patiently for DECADES to incorporate Steam Boat Willie into my designs and now the time has arrived!

I'm going to go for the Steam PUNK Willie angle

 

[Gino]

I'm just glad I don't hafta worry about any of this sh!t. Cripes, I have enough problems with 58 genders to figure out, let alone mickety mouse and the gang.

 

[mkmie]

I suppose, though it's not my cup of tea, haha. Interestingly, the theme of Mickey Mouse is going to change. For 100 years Mickey was playful and crafted to be happy go-getty. Now everyone is turning it on its head. I am sure some people will find it jarring and others will find it enjoyable.

I thought this was an AI until the "happy go-getty". Does AI speak like that?

 

[Boudica]

I thought this was an AI until the "happy go-getty". Does AI speak like that?

It might now, really tough to tell because it keeps adding data. I Wouldn't be surprised if someone is training the bot to speak So Cal surfer. Brah.

 

[JBurton]

It might now, really tough to tell because it keeps adding data.

Like, right now, it's reading this thread, it knows what we know. Not just that, it knows what we know that we don't know, and the really scary part, it knows what we don't know that we don't know.
Sh*ts gonna start planning humanity part II while we're all arguing about mickey mouse, abortion, and why 3m is better than avery.

 

[jochwat]

The best part about all of this Disney-Public Domain hubbub is that Disney has made its zillions by recreating famous stories that are, you guessed it: in the public domain. A short list:

Cinderella
Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
Beauty and the Beast
The Little Mermaid
Sleeping Beauty
The Jungle Book
The Princess and the Frog
Alice in Wonderland
Peter Pan
Pinocchio
The Hunchback of Notre Dame

...the list continues with dozens more.

Interesting that a corporation that owes so much to those existing works would hold those reigns so tightly. Great business model, though -- all the more difficult writing has already been done!

 

[SignDesign(her)]

I thought this was an AI until the "happy go-getty". Does AI speak like that?

I guess... I will take that as a compliment? Maybe my diction and writing is still strong after all, comparable to an AI, maybe not for long, though.

 

[JBurton]

I guess... I will take that as a compliment? Maybe my diction and writing is still strong after all, comparable to an AI, maybe not for long, though.

We're all on the lookout for the bots that keep trashing up the forum, they'll make an account, post randomly for a few months, then start slipping links in for products that have nothing to do with signs (which is wild, you'd think they'd at least try to sell super cheap vinyl and the like, but no, it's tiktok followers and other digital products), then they really break loose and post to 30 different threads at a time. So don't take the accusations of being an AI too seriously, you still gotta prove your mettle. Once gino rips on you for not doing things like they used to, you'll get your wings.

 

[Boudica]

And loosen up with the diction and writing... And tossing out words like diction. Sounds like chatgpt instead of a human.

 

[gnubler]

Her diction will come to an abrupt halt when her battery runs out of charge.

Do bots gets range anxiety, like Tesla drivers?

 

[JBurton]

Do bots gets range anxiety, like Tesla drivers?

See, one day, the bots won't have range/battery anxiety, it'll be human energy anxiety...

 

[Stacey K]

What Boudica said...around here we don't talk fancy. Infact, many of us use pictures to get our point across...some pictures are more appropriate than others.

 

[bob]

'Steamboat Willie'? Really? Could there exist more than three organisms in the entire galaxy that give an ounce of ossified wombat snot that this image is public domain?