New Year’s Public Domain Day is the nerdiest holiday you may not know about. But this year’s celebration is extraordinary. After years of litigation, “Steamboat Willie,” a 1928 Walt Disney cartoon with Mickey Mouse, is officially in the public domain.
That doesn’t imply you can do whatever you want with Mickey Mouse. What about Mickey Mouse from “Steamboat Willie”? Public domain, baby.
Every January 1, old literature, music, and art become public domain. Some works are public domain from the start, but copyrighted works become public domain when they expire. Copyright laws vary per nation, but the public domain explains films like Winnie the Pooh (rated 3% on Rotten Tomatoes) and LGBT “Great Gatsby” retellings. 
Several horror films and computer games will use Mickey Mouse from “Steamboat Willie.” In general, “because I can” doesn’t inspire great creativity (see Rotten Tomatoes’ rating on “Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey”), but reality imitates a YouTube comments section: everyone wants to be “first.”
South Park remixed Mickey Mouse into an egomaniacal Mr. Mouse who wants everything. Mr. Mouse rips off Mickey, yet a different copyright law protects such portrayals. The fair use concept allows transformative or satirical copyright infringement (although these are subjective bounds, which is another legal issue).
Any important public-domain work will be recognized. Disney tried to avoid this day from happening, which is why there are so many surprise “Steamboat Willie” adaptations.
Disney extended “Steamboat Willie”’s copyright for 40 years by pushing the government for two copyright extension bills. Disney first lobbied Congress for the 1976 Copyright Act, which delayed “Steamboat Willie” and Mickey Mouse’s public domain appearance until 2004. Disney lobbied for several extensions in the 1990s, resulting in the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998, which protected “Steamboat Willie” until a few days ago.
People expected Disney would fight on. But I don’t think it’s unexpected that this day has come,” commented CU Boulder associate professor of information science Casey Fiesler. “It was inevitable. Postponing this again would have been a PR disaster and a hard fight.”
Public-domain legends like Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid” and the Brothers Grimm’s Cinderella and Rapunzel inspired some of Disney’s most famous works. Critics called Disney’s massive copyright extension campaign disingenuous, calling the 1998 measure the “Mickey Mouse Protection Act.”
Social internet meme-makers like humiliating big companies. It’s like David vs. Goliath, where regular internet users want to feel like they can defeat untouchable businesses. The internet loved seeing someone imitate Eli Lilly on Twitter and claim insulin was free using the flawed blue check system. Like when the Bernie Sanders mittens meme got big and Amazon put their own Bernie meme on Twitter. The meme was swiftly deleted as people noted that Sanders is one of Amazon’s most ardent detractors.
Mickey Mouse from “Steamboat Willie” is everywhere. Some crypto enthusiasts are manufacturing “Steamboat Willie” NFTs, which is a wonderful idea that won’t lead to scams. Nihilistic meme-makers are creating AI-generated pictures of Mickey Mouse performing 9/11, admitting to JFK’s murder, and other extreme Mickey depictions that we cannot display on our page. People produce these memes because they can, not because they support Mickey Mouse committing terrorism.
The craze of using generative AI to produce the most awful copyrighted media representations, such as pregnant Sonic the Hedgehog or Hatsune Miku attending the January 6 riots, continues. Only this time, Mickey memes are allowed as long as the artist expressly acknowledges the “Steamboat Willie” Mickey Mouse.
“Steamboat Willie” is surprisingly good source material for a seven-minute silent film. The 95-year-old “Steamboat Willie” clip displays Mickey Mouse’s less-sanitized side. Mickey throws a potato at a bird, converts a goat into a music box, and uses baby pig tails as instruments. His personality suits “Tom and Jerry” more than “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.”
“Steamboat Willie” is 2024’s first meme, but the Disney parody will wear off. People may still risk mouse wrath if they’re not careful.
In December, Disney stated, “We will, of course, continue to protect our rights in the more modern versions of Mickey Mouse and other works that remain subject to copyright, and we will work to safeguard against consumer confusion caused by unauthorized uses of Mickey and our other iconic characters.
