Two icons of American pop culture lose copyright protections on Jan. 1

Every Jan. 1, a new batch of books, movies and other artistic creations enters the public domain. Copyright law in the United States is a complicated matter, but at its simplest, what’s happening this year is this: As of Jan. 1, 2024, the copyright expires on works from 1928 and they enter the public domain.

The most famous — and controversial — of this year’s batch are two icons of American pop culture: Mickey and Minnie Mouse. A big asterisk is appended to this news, however, as only a certain iteration of America’s most lucrative rodents is entering the public domain.

In November 1928, Walt Disney Studio released “Steamboat Willie,” the short that changed everything for the company. The seven-minute cartoon, which used the relatively new technology of synchronized sound, starred Mickey as a steamboat pilot. Although other shorts featured Mickey and Minnie, it was “Steamboat Willie” that catapulted them to ubiquity. 

“Steamboat Willie” nearly entered the public domain multiple times over the 20th century, but a bill passed by Congress in 1998 kept it safely behind Disney’s copyright protections. Often jeeringly called the “Mickey Mouse Protection Act” because of rumors that Disney lobbying helped get the bill pushed through, the act extended how long works could remain copyrighted.

But the temporary lifeline has run out and, as of Jan. 1, you can use the 1928 Mickey and Minnie’s images in a few specific ways. According to a very thorough rundown from Duke Law, you can’t pretend to be making Disney merchandise or media; in other words, don’t go opening a mouse-themed park with Mickey iconography all over it. Disney also still maintains the copyright to later versions of Mickey, including probably the most famous iteration: the sweet little sorcerer Mickey in the 1940 film “Fantasia.” 

“Your mouse can speak intelligibly in a high voice even though Mickey 1.0 does not do so; giving a talking mouse a squeaky voice is not copyrightable,” the Duke Law blog notes. “Generic character traits such as being adorable and having less jaunty dance moves are fair game. What’s more, anything you ‘independently create’ — or come up with yourself — is legal. Choosing your own color scheme is fine; you do not have to stick to black and white.”

But will Disney come knocking if you start producing Mickey and Minnie tote bags? That remains to be seen — and more than likely will hit the courts at some point in the future due to the many intricacies of the law. Your best bet is to stay far away from insinuating in any way that the product you’re making is affiliated with Disney. If you want to avoid the wrath of the mouse, Duke Law recommends including a “prominent disclaimer indicating that your work was not produced, endorsed, licensed, or approved by Disney.”