• gibmiser@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Steamboat Willy in “Steamboat Willy Recites Racist Quotes from Walt Disney”

  • mechoman444@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    I predict a complete overhaul of our trademark and copyright laws that will accommodate Disney’s desires.

    You know… Basically what they did last time.

    • someguy3@lemmy.worldOP
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      10 months ago

      Too late for copyright laws, it’s in the public domain and can’t go back afaik. Now trademark laws can be interesting.

      • GlendatheGayWitch@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Actually SCOTUS ruled that extending the copyright pulls it out of public domain in Golan v Holder. Congress passed a law that put some literary and musical works back into copyright from the public domain. A case was brought by some educators and musicians that the removal of these works from the public domain infri get on their free speech, but the Court disagreed 6-2.

    • frezik@midwest.social
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      10 months ago

      Doing that for Trademark law is why they didn’t bother lobbying for longer copyright this time. They could protect their Mouse trademark without relying on Steamboat Willy like they did before.

  • circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org
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    10 months ago

    Quite honestly: nothing. Some folks might deliberately use Steamboat Willie in some content because they can, and Disney will likely try and attack some of those people in court based on trademark law if applicable.

    But I don’t really see a lot of actual utility in the Steamboat Willie character, outside of Disney itself. Any use of it is ultimately just referring to the “I can do this now” aspect of having just entered public domain, which frankly isn’t that interesting.

    • Lemminary@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      use Steamboat Willy in some content because they can

      “Fuck you, Disney! Look what I can do now” *makes armpit fart noises*

    • LifeOfChance@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      If you look what happened with pooh I’m guessing we may see the same thing happen here. There will definitely be testing of the waters on what people can do

    • Kaizodrack@lemmy.eco.br
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      10 months ago

      Saw ONE design of the character on Twitter that actually made for an interesting idea that could be expanded upon, there IS space for someone to do smth cool about it but I honestly don’t think anyone will. Hey, Toontown Rewritten could model this Mickey and use it for something I guess.

    • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      But I don’t really see a lot of actual utility in the Steamboat Willy character

      Could he be used to sell riverboat cruises?

  • otp@sh.itjust.works
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    10 months ago

    A lot of Disney throwing its weight around as people accidentally overstep the bounds of copyright, trademark and other legal stuff like that.

    Not saying Disney would be in the right. But Disney is bonkers for this kind of stuff, and they’ve got ridiculous amounts of money to spend in court.

    • someguy3@lemmy.worldOP
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      10 months ago

      Well the copyright expired, that’s why it’s now public domain. But the trademark is still there.

        • someguy3@lemmy.worldOP
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          10 months ago

          A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark[1]) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies a product or service from a particular source and distinguishes it from others.[2][3]

          I would say an animated intro isn’t a trademark, and even then making a movie with that material isn’t copying someone’s trademark for your trademark. But this could get interesting.

          • unrelatedkeg@lemmy.sdf.org
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            10 months ago

            I mean they just need to slap a ™ on every official appearence of Mickey. Hell, they can easily say an abstract representstion of Mickey’s ears represent Disney and they wouldn’t even be wrong.

            • someguy3@lemmy.worldOP
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              10 months ago

              This is pushing my knowledge but trademark infringement would be if you use their logo as your logo. You can’t mislead people into thinking your product comes from them. That doesn’t mean you can’t ever have public domain things in your product.

  • SCB@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    A veritable orgy of uninspired crap taking advantage of the fact that people want to feel subversive but don’t actually want to subvert anything or say or do anything interesting, because all of those things are hard.

    Basically the same thing as the Pooh-but-not-tigger comics you see posted on here that people pretend are funny.

    • credit crazy@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Tbh when it comes to stuff like the pooh movie. I think that probably could count as fair use anyway. Ultimately I’ve been hoping for more things to enter public domain for historical preservation via piracy. Just look at Nintendo not only have they done nothing to preserve older games but they seem to go out of their way to make sure they get erased. Because how dare someone get a product you don’t even sell anymore. I just see these parody? films and think the only reason they exist is because copyright life has been extended for soo far that people are giddy that they can now use and distribute old content.

    • Zoolander@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      That is the thing I’m seeing the most this past year and it’s already starting up for this year - there seems to be little thoughtfulness being put into things online. It’s just a firehose of high-engagement, low-impact, low-thought chaff.

      Edit: Saw this 2 posts after this one: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/7129376