As another year begins, another round of works enter the public domain, including the earliest appearances of 'Mickey Mouse,' according to Duke University Law School's Center for the Study of the Public Domain.
Both 'Steamboat Willie,' and the silent version of 'Plane Crazy,' which were released in 1928, are the first shorts to feature the iconic animated rodent that has since become a household name.
This also marks the first time a work produced by the Walt Disney Company has fallen into the public domain. This comes after the company spent decades upon decades lobbying to extend the copyright term to 95 years, codified in the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998.
This does not mean the character of "Mickey Mouse" in his entirety is now in the public domain, just the version that appears in these shorts specifically.
This means that if someone wanted to, they could make a gritty, R-rated adaptation of 'Steamboat Willie," similar to what was seen with the 2023 film "Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey," which took advantage of the fact that the early 'Winnie the Pooh' stories fell into the public domain in 2022.
However, this would mean that any prospective filmmaker or artist would have to take care not to use elements of 'Mickey Mouse' that were introduced after 1928, such as his red shorts, yellow shoes, and white gloves, as outlined in this timeline graphic created by the Center.
It's not just old Disney shorts entering the public domain, as a number of other shorts, feature films, literary works, music compositions, and sound recordings that were released in 1928 enter the public domain.
Other notable films include "Should Married Men Go Home," which was the first film to bill Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy as the iconic comedy duo, Laurel and Hardy.
The list also include films whose actors won the very first Oscars, with "The Last Command" netting start Emil Jannings the first Academy Award for Best Actor in 1929, and "Street Angel," which won it's star Janet Gaynor the award for Best Actress that same year.
For literature, notable works falling into the public domain include "All Quiet on the Western Front" by Erich Maria Remarque, the Hercule Poirot story "Mystery of the Blue Train" by Agatha Christie, as well as Wanda Gág's "Millions of Cats," which is the oldest American picture book still in print.
For music, the list includes "Animal Crackers," first composed by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby for the Marx Brothers' comedy of the same name.
