Tag: public domain

A good primer on copyright, trademark, and Disney.

I saw this via Facebook: Mickey, Disney, and the Public Domain: a 95-year Love Triangle. It should walk you through what people can and cannot do with the Steamboat Willie Mickey Mouse, starting Monday. Short version: copyright (which will expire for that Mickey) regulates if you can use something; trademark (which will not) prevents others from using material misleadingly. To use an example from the text: you can’t slap a Nike swoosh on your shoes and make people think your shoes are from Adidas, but Adidas can’t stop you from using or referencing the word ‘Nike.’ Also, the courts are actually pretty strict about not letting trademark law do end runs around copyright law. Because people have tried to do exactly that.

Continue reading A good primer on copyright, trademark, and Disney.

Be prepared for a STEAMBOAT WILLY animated skin flick in the next couple of years.

It’s gonna happen. The combination of the name, and the ability to use a version of Mickey Mouse to stick it to Disney in such a crude fashion*, will be irresistible to somebody. It will be lewd, it will be tawdry, and it will be using public domain IP, so the Mouse is gonna be, ah…

*I am so, so, terribly sorry about that.

1926 AD works officially join public domain.

A good day. Also of note: this includes digital recordings made prior to 1922. Also note: Milne’s Winnie the Pooh is now public domain, not the Mouse’s. …Their time will come.

Tweet of the Day, The Internet Is For Scanning Public Domain SFF-Horror Pulp edition.

This looks cool:

Although the way it’s configured, it’s more of a tool for people doing research than it is a toy for people looking to browse.  Which does not make it any less cool, of course.  It just makes it a specific type of cool.

Let me introduce you to Cooks Source.

It will be today’s Don’t Let This Happen To You!

Here’s the timeline:

  • Somebody wrote up a couple of medieval apple pie recipes for a website.  Being a medievalist, this writeup included the original recipes, which means that they included the original spelling.
  • Cooks Source went onto the Internet, pulled the recipe, and printed it in their magazine.  No, they didn’t get permission.
  • When the author found out about it, she emailed the magazine.  Her – very reasonable – demand?  Apologies on Facebook and in print, and $130 to the Columbia School of Journalism (well, it’s her call).
  • Instead, she got… this. Continue reading Let me introduce you to Cooks Source.