![\"willie\"](\"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/willie.gif\")
For several decades, Disney has managed to keep the earliest footage of its iconic mouse protected. <\/p>\nFor several decades, Disney has managed to keep the earliest footage of its iconic mouse protected. <\/p>\n
Notably, the 1998 U.S. Copyright Term Extension Act, also dubbed the Mickey Mouse Protection Act<\/a><\/em>, extended copyright protection to 95 years. <\/p>\n When Walt Disney released \u201cSteamboat Willie<\/a>\u201d in 1928, he couldn\u2019t have envisioned how important this short film would become, or that its entrance into the U.S. public domain would spark headlines worldwide. Nevertheless, that\u2019s exactly what happened<\/a>.<\/p>\n On January 1, many people celebrated the public domain event<\/em> by uploading \u201cSteamboat Willie\u201d to YouTube and elsewhere. This, ironically, triggered<\/a> several<\/a> takedown notices from Disney, which were swiftly retracted afterward.<\/p>\n At the same time, a trailer for a Mickey-themed horror movie<\/a> was making the rounds. The early versions of the Mickey character are now free to use, so non-Disney creators can use that to their advantage. <\/p>\n This doesn\u2019t mean that Mickey Mouse is completely free, however. Later iterations of the famous mouse remain well-protected and Disney has stated that it will safeguard those to the best of its ability. <\/p>\n \u201cWe 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,\u201d Disney said.<\/p>\n Indeed, if we look at the recent takedown notices sent by Disney to Google there are plenty of Mickey references. There are even some mentioning \u201csteamboat,\u201d but those are not what they seem.<\/p>\n The steamboat mentions point to \u201cSteamboat Silly<\/a>,\u201d which is the final episode in The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse series. This short, released last year, celebrates the 100th Disney anniversary by bringing back many key characters. <\/p>\n The episode is littered with easter eggs including references to the 1929 The Skeleton Dance<\/a> and Dumbo\u2019s debut in 1941. The undisputed star of the show, however, is the original Mickey Mouse.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n To make things more confusing, \u201cSteamboat Silly\u201d also includes footage from \u201cSteamboat Willie\u201d which could confuse automatic content recognition systems that flag pirated content. For now, however, we have seen no concrete evidence of that. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n As seen above, the publicly available takedown notices<\/a> simply ask Google to remove URLs from its search engine that link to the 2023 \u201cSteamboat Silly\u201d release. <\/p>\n Strangely enough, we also noticed that music group BPI targeted a site<\/a> listing Roblox videos that include \u201cSteamboat Willie\u201d footage<\/a> to protect<\/a> content from an artist named \u201cWillie,\u201d but that must be a mistake.<\/p>\n Just how \u2018free\u2019 Mickey Mouse is today has yet to be seen and controversy remains likely going forward. Public domain rules are not the same everywhere in the world<\/a>, but it\u2019s safe to say that anyone can use the original \u201cSteamboat Willie\u201d footage under U.S. law.<\/p>\n From a copyright angle, a public domain Mickey Mouse is highly intriguing, but it seems that pirates can\u2019t be bothered by it. <\/p>\n We searched a few torrent and streaming sites for a copy of \u201cSteamboat Willie\u201d, both before and after it entered the public domain, without result. Not strange, perhaps, for a 95-year-old show, but quite the contrast compared to YouTube<\/a> where people can monetize it.<\/p>\n Searching for \u201cSteamboat\u201d does return more pirate results, including copies of the 1928 classic \u201cSteamboat Bill, Jr<\/a>.\u201d And the \u201cSteamboat Silly\u201d short, of course, which Disney can protect until 2119. <\/p>\n By then, we won\u2019t be around to check though.<\/p>\n \u2014<\/p>\n<\/p>\n From: TF<\/a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.<\/p>\nFree Mickey<\/h2>\n
Steamboat\u2026 Silly<\/h2>\n
![\"silly\"](\"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/silly-scaled-e1706259558551.jpg\")
<\/center><\/p>\n![\"dmca](\"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/silly-dmca.jpg\")
<\/center><\/p>\nPirates?<\/h2>\n
![\"steamboat\"](\"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/silly-steam.jpg\")
<\/center><\/p>\n
![targeted a site<\/a> listing Roblox videos that include](\"https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/images\/willieroblox.jpg\"){kind=link}