Hacker News Reader

Comment by stinkytaco | Hacker News Reader

They would not be relinquishing their trademarks or the rights to make more Mickey Mouse movies. Nor would this necessarily mean that the character of Mickey Mouse would go into the public domain. Simply that the discrete works would now be public domain.

There are Donald Duck works in the public domain (Spirit of '43) and that doesn't seem to impact their bottom line terribly.

View on HN

These days kids barely know who Donald Duck or Mickey are. I wonder how much of that is because Disney intentionally invests in other IP that isn't under this threat.

There's a newly-created Mickey Mouse series on Disney Channel; from what little I've seen of it, Mickey's look is much more of a throwback to the Steamboat Willie age.

Also, when I saw Frozen at the theater a couple of weeks ago, there was an old-style Mickey cartoon before the picture (albeit one that broke the fourth wall in ways I don't believe the old cartoons did).

Maybe I'm being nostalgic but Mickey used to be a big movie star and now he's relegated to mostly direct-to-dvd. He was still immensely popular through the 1980s with rereleases of Fantasia in theaters, Mickey's Christmas Carol, etc. Now it seems unimaginable that he'd star in a big budget Disney film. It seems reasonable to me that they are preferring IP that was created post-1976 for a reason.

Does Disney have any long recurring characters in its new films? Most are threequels at most this generation.

My kid knows who Mickey Mouse is. He is two, and mickey mouse is by far his favorite.

About 20 years ago I was in Orlando (not to see Disney World, though we did). When the done-up characters came through the room where we were having breakfast, you could see the eyes get big as quarters on some little kids at a table over from us. I have to think this was recognition, since otherwise it should have scared them terribly.

Eh, when I was a kid visiting Orlando, I was in love with Holly Hound character, who I never saw before walking into Holiday Inn

> These days kids barely know who Donald Duck or Mickey are.

Ignoring the fact this is likely false, this has nothing to do with copyright. It's a matter of trademark law, and Disney would in no way lose the trademark over any of its characters if certain specific films featuring them were released into the public domain.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com