Public domain and the future of American culture

A look at how public domain law has helped shape American culture, and how it will continue to in the post-Mickey era.

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[konzack]

I think it is important to stress that copyright in the beginning was only 28 years to protect the original author. The 95 years today is to protect the corporations.

[leecreech]

A company in Paraguay (called Mickey S.R.L.) trademarked Mickey Mouse for use on packaged food products in the country before Disney did. Disney lost the lawsuit against the company, so they still use the mouse on its products to this day. It's Micky facing sideways which for some reason is ok. It's very alarming to see it in the grocery store. Just seems odd seeing Micky on low budget packages of salt pepper and other condiments.

[mcmilkmcmilk]

I think this whole micky mouse situation really shows how the design of a single character can be transformed so many ways

[daveSoupy]

So I know that It’s a Wonderful Life fell into the public domain because no one renewed it. Because it was free to use lots of tv stations played it during the holidays to fill time where people finally learned to appreciate it. Then the studios somehow took back its copyright because of the popularity.

[michaelpattie]

The funniest detail on the Wizard of Oz is that the wicked witch of the west being green is also unique to the MGM version, but in practice, they only own the exact shade of green that was in the film, so every adaptation uses its own specific green.

For Return to Oz, Disney probably could have gotten away with slightly different red slippers, but being able to call them "the ruby slippers" was probably why the went with paying for the license.

[jordanjanus]

My grandfather is 90 years old and I'm worried about him entering public domain when he turns 95 :(

[JeffKing]

I worked in the copyright space for 20 years and this is one of the best “lay person” recaps of copyright and public domain I have seen.

I bestow a special award to JJ for this episode.

I will now bookmark this episode so I can release it with full monetization 70 years after JJ’s passing (or the passing of his co—writer, if he has one, whichever is later).

Thanks for the future fat stacks.

[asahearts]

Fun fact about the Donkey Kong case: The lawyer who defended Nintendo was named Kirby, so they named a character after him. 😂

[TroubledTrooper]

My favorite part of Public Domain is the possibilities it gives to new creations. A lot of creators overlook the way you can derive from Public Domain work to make something new and exciting. Take Disney for example, they would not be anything without making derivative and adaptive works of stories in the Public Domain.

[OptimusPhillip]

Some further notes:
Night of the Living Dead did originally have a full copyright stamp on its original planned title card. But that title card dubbed the movie "Night of the Flesh Eaters". At the last minute, the title was changed to "Night of the Living Dead", so a new title card had to be made. In their rush, though, they neglected to add the copyright stamp to the new card, and the movie ended up falling into the public domain.
The ownership status of King Kong is still in dispute. Different studios and authors have had their hands on the property over the years, each with their own copyrights, so it can be difficult to tell who should be allowed to do what with the character, or what aspects of the story are and aren't public domain.
While the ruby slippers are an invention of MGM's Wizard of Oz, they were a replacement for the silver shoes from the original public domain novel, which serve the same narrative purpose, but were less impressive for a Technicolor showcase. So your own original adaptation of The Wizard of Oz can have all the magic shiny footwear you want, as long as they aren't the ruby slippers iconic to MGM's version.

[MrScottbot]

Another interesting quirk about US copyright law is that any media produced for the US Government is automatically in the public domain

[DrPeppering]

I find the relationship between a works status and its popularity to be fascinating. Like "Its A Wonderful Life" becoming a classic because it was public domain. Or how a large portion of Robert Frost's poems became obscure because they got caught in the freeze. So everyone knows Two Roads Diverged but little else. Or how the "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign was never copyrighted (on purpose, a gift to the city) so it became ubiquitous. Id love to find more such examples.

[killergoose]

I find it interesting how the conversation around public domain relating to Steamboat Willie has focused so heavily on reimagining and re-markeing the character and using the original work as a springboard for derivative works, rather than just reproducing the original work and making it more freely available, the latter being how public domain had always seemed to be understood on the rare occasions I heard about it in the past. Really goes to show how important remix culture and "IP" have become in the modern zeitgeist.

[SapphireRose]

Imagine being jumped by a gang of devious-looking stock image people, their flat 2D forms menacingly sliding closer to you and your precious intellectual property. Truly a nightmare.

[WTFG]

There’s one instance I know of where a company intentionally put a product into the public domain.
Back when the Atari brand was owned by the toy company Hasbro, the properties included the rights to all its home consoles. When some game developers wanted to release titles they were working on for the Atari Jaguar, they contacted Hasbro to get licensing agreements. No one at Hasbro wanted to deal with the hassle of licensing for a system as unpopular as the Jaguar, so effectively wash their hands of the situation, they released the system’s patents and rights to the public domain so that the developers could release games without worrying about licensing. It’s been an “open system” ever since.

[SCWood]

Watching all the new IP's that get bumped into the public domain is definitely going to be a New Year's Day tradition for me.

[compatriot]

It's a shame how abused copyright is by companies. The fact that it's practically almost a century is insane. Well beyond most of our lifespans

[willlee]

As a musical worship leader at a church, my biggest interaction with the public domain is with hymnody. Especially when an artist or musician writes a new chorus or verse to a hymn which then no longer makes it public domain and proper attribution must be given in any printing or projection of lyrics. Sometimes old hymns in the public domain are given new tunes which means that song becomes an entirely new work with the text being Public Domain but the tune and arrangement copyrighted.

[emmakorhonen]

I love public domain so much. I use public domain films and cartoons to make music videos for instrumental trip-hop songs I make on my YouTube channel. I also remember being excited when happy birthday became public domain in 2015 because I was working on an indie film with a birthday scene. I was very excited to tell my bosses, and we were able to sing the normal song instead of making up some weird version lol

[codybaker]

I'm sure JJ will be feasting the next few years with all of the cultural icons hitting the public domain. It will be a neat thing to watch in the near future what we do and don't decide to do with cultural icons as they become available for public use.