Former Disney Employee Smells Rat in Mickey Mouse Copyright Protection

There is a multi-layered, Edward Tufte-style infographic to be made of the tangled history of U.S. intellectual property law and Mickey Mouse. The newest development has all the ingredients of a Disney film: a grumpy, bespectacled former employee, some long forgotten fine print, a phalanx of corporate lawyers, and a problem-solving pair of talking muskrats. OK, we’re kidding about the muskrats, but the rest is true, and it made the front page of today’s Los Angeles Times.

In short, some legal ambiguity involving a 1909 copyright law and the title credits of Steamboat Willie could mean that the early, lankier version of Mickey that appeared in the 1928 animated film is free of copyright restrictions. Young Mickey’s shaky legal status was discovered by a former Disney employee who the company had successfully sued on a separate IP matter. When later queried by a law student about the Steamboat Willie issue, Disney responded with denials and threats. Meanwhile, no one is eager to enter into a court battle with the all-powerful company, which learned the hard way to hold tight to its characters:

One of Walt Disney’s earliest creations was Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. After the cartoon proved popular, a New York distributor used an advantage in its contract to take control of Oswald, then hired away many of Disney’s artists. Mickey was the product of a desperate comeback attempt by Walt and his brother.

The Disneys got the last laugh, of course, when the wayward rabbit’s luck ran out, and he was implicated in the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

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