Part of it may be disingenuous. Mickey isn't in the public domain, but the Steamboat Willie cartoon is. Disney can't sue anyone as long as they maintain that they are not in fact using Mickey Mouse (who is not named in the Steamboat Willie cartoon) in their original works.
Mickey Mouse is public domain now
That's simply not true, at least not in the way such a simple statement implies. I was trying to give it the proper nuance without getting into the weeds.
It is true, Mickey Mouse is public domain. The caveat that later appearances still under copyright aren't applies to all public domain characters, it doesn't make what I said untrue
Okay.
Yeah
Very specific depictions of Mickey (like the Steamboat Willie cartoon) are now public domain. The entire history of the character and his myriad of depictions are very much not public, and Disney is very litigious. That's why it's better to just err on "this is a different character who is PD".
I strongly disagree, besides it just being incorrect to say they are separate characters I don't think we should pretend they are to appease copyright holders, the public domain has been abused enough as is we shouldn't surrender even more. Mickey Mouse is public domain.
Cool.
The argument is that Mickey is *playing the role of Steamboat Willie* in the cartoon, which helps distinguish him from later (non-public domain and very actionable) depictions of Mickey. Again, it's a disingenuous. A farce even! But it's a farce that keeps the Disney lawyers at bay.
Willie is the name of the boat
Neither the mouse nor the steamboat are referred to as 'willie' in the short itself. It is most likely a reference to the film 'Steamboat Bill Jr.' Later material from Disney has referred to both as Willie though that doesn't change original short
I'm honestly not arguing any of this. 😄 I understand it's absurd. I'm just trying to lay out why some (not all, because there's always that person who is proudly wrong) of the people you're encountering say the things they do despite evidence to the contrary.
I just...... It hurts my brain
