Free The Mouse!
Thursday, November 20th, 2003 01:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
flwydMickey Mouse turned 75 this week and would have passed into the public domain had Eric Eldred and Lawrence Lessig gotten their way.
Today, movies and television are the main distributors of culture in America. Mickey Mouse been a major player in four generations of cultural immersion, but he differs fundamentally with the characters of old. He doesn't grow.
Centuries ago, folk tales and myths were passed from one generation to the next, mutating as they moved from village to village, from century to century. Storytelling was vital to social survival.
Disney is a prime example of this phenomenon. Almost all of their major animated movies are based on fairy tales from around the world. But they don't accord the same freedom to those who watch their own movies. Disney can take liberties with Grimm's Snow White and retell it, but you can't take liberties with Disney's Snow White and retell it.
Thanks to the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998, copyrights now last for 70 years after the life of the author, or 95 years after creation for corporate-created works. Without the Act, Peter Pan entered the public domain in 1987. With the Act, it won't hit until 2007. Somehow, I don't think it makes a difference to J. M. Barrie.
So sing Happy Birthday to the Mouse. Oh wait. You can't until 2030.
Today, movies and television are the main distributors of culture in America. Mickey Mouse been a major player in four generations of cultural immersion, but he differs fundamentally with the characters of old. He doesn't grow.
Centuries ago, folk tales and myths were passed from one generation to the next, mutating as they moved from village to village, from century to century. Storytelling was vital to social survival.
Disney is a prime example of this phenomenon. Almost all of their major animated movies are based on fairy tales from around the world. But they don't accord the same freedom to those who watch their own movies. Disney can take liberties with Grimm's Snow White and retell it, but you can't take liberties with Disney's Snow White and retell it.
Thanks to the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998, copyrights now last for 70 years after the life of the author, or 95 years after creation for corporate-created works. Without the Act, Peter Pan entered the public domain in 1987. With the Act, it won't hit until 2007. Somehow, I don't think it makes a difference to J. M. Barrie.
So sing Happy Birthday to the Mouse. Oh wait. You can't until 2030.
