Mickey Mouse inbetweener drawing no. 469 or 479 from Steamboat Willie, Library of Congress
Historical Context
Mickey Mouse was created by Walt Disney in 1928 and fell under copyright protection. This iteration of Mickey Mouse continues to be protected by copyright nearly 100 years after its creation.
Disney's Fantasia was released November 13, 1940, and shows the version of Mickey Mouse that most have come to know and love from their childhood. Fantasia is currently in the public domain despite the original iteration not entering the public domain until January 1, 2024.
Animation cel showing Mickey Mouse dressed in a red robe from the Sorcerer's apprentice sequence of the animated film Fantasia, Library of Congress
"Copyright laws arose out of eighteenth-century markets and technologies, the most important characteristic of which was artificial scarcity." (Patry 2)
Copyright laws were created for eighteenth-century societies yet they have been left mostly unchanged to present-day 2022. This has led to controversy over how inadequate copyright law interacts with modern-day works of art.
"When news of the pirate NEC broke in mid-2006, the story quickly winged its way across the Internet." (Johns 2)
Copyright laws just like any other laws will have flaws, but often time laws are changed to compensate for their flaws. Copyright laws aren't a very good example of this as they have been majorly unchanged other than extending the length of protection.
Short term: Disney has lobbied congress to encourage the passing of copyright acts to protect their copyrighted works for longer periods.
Long-term: Disney did this because they are still making a great deal of money off of their older incarnations of characters such as Mickey Mouse.