Disney’s Rights to Mickey Mouse Questioned
Joseph Menn’s "Disney’s rights to young Mickey Mouse may be wrong" in the Los Angeles Times:
"Brand experts reckon his value to today’s Walt Disney Co. empire at more than $3 billion. Acts of Congress have extended Mickey’s copyright so long that they provoked a Supreme Court challenge, making Mickey the ultimate symbol of intellectual property.
"All signs pointed to a Hollywood ending with Disney and Mickey Mouse living happily ever after — at least until a grumpy former employee looked closely at fine print long forgotten in company archives.
…
"Although studio executives are not yet hurling themselves from the parapets of Sleeping Beauty’s castle, the unexpected discovery raises an intriguing question: Is it possible that Mickey Mouse now belongs to the world — and that his likeness is usable by anybody for anything?"
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For a useful analysis of the widespread problem of claiming copyright on public domain works, see Jason Mazzone’s article, “Copyfraud,” published by New York University. It is available for (free) download here: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=787244