#public Domain

[prokopetz]

Something I think the indie RPG community would really benefit from is a database of public-domain works which contain lists of things. People have always loved making big stupid lists, and big stupid lists are eminently suitable to being stolen and adapted as big stupid tables.

[blogjhm]

Mickey Mouse as the captain of the steamboat.

Steamboat Willie (1928)

[infernothechaosgod]

I do want to say my oswald really really loves mickey, he's not jaleous of him at all if anything he feels much pity on him, he used to feel a little jaleous of mickey when he was younger and imagined all the good parts of it but then he decided to follow him to his acting job backstage and very very quickly noticed how his job looked like behind the scenes and how the job was closer to a nightmare than what he assumed to be a dream, oswald has always been a bit protective of mickey but after that he made sure to kick out "bit" from that sentance

He's a bit angry and emotional but he loves his brother more than the world

[huntthemouse]

Pumpkin Spice Mickey

324/365 #hunt the flavor

Another spice-themed Mickey, with a Star Anise seed for a nose, a crumble of pie crust across the frost ears and tails, and pumpkin shoes! I ate a pumpkin pie so you can probably guess where the inspiration for this one came from

I am making 365 new versions of Mickey Mouse for the public domain and releasing them under public domain all year long.

You can join the initiative to #hunt the mouse or suggest a theme yourself via my ask box.

[opencharacters]

It looks like Mickey has something to say

[i-am-trans-gwender]

You should read The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

In The Call of Cthulhu the titular character is defeated by a steamboat. The story is in the public domain.

The Steamboat Willie version of Mickey Mouse is also public domain.

Therefore it is legally possible and canon compliant for Mickey Mouse to defeat Cthulhu.

[peejalien]

Happy Mickey Mouse is mine day

[hell0mega]

people are drawing Steamboat Willie Mickey doing all this crazy shit and whatnot, but you could always do that. you can do that now, with current Mickey, just fine. it's fanart and it's legally protected. hell you could take Disney-drawn Mickey and put a caption about unions or whatever on it and it would still be protected under free speech and sometimes even parody law.

what is special about public domain is that you can SELL him. you could take a screenshot and sell it on a tshirt. you can use him to advertise your plumbing business. people have already uploaded and monetized the original film.

you could always have Mickey say what you want, but now you can profit off it.

[skiplo-wave]

Fyi

( x )

Happy creating folks

[spectralid]

Steamboat Willie has been in public domain for the last three days, and yet I've seen no one post this Pop Team Epic strip...

[bagelsforall]

Public Domain Expansion

[prokopetz]

Mickey Mouse's entry into the public domain comes with significant caveats. While the Mickey Mouse who appears in Steamboat Willie (and other media published in 1928 or earlier) is free to use, there's established precedent that specific elements of a character which appear exclusively in later works which still fall under copyright may be protected, if sufficiently distinctive.

(This is the basis of, e.g., the infamous "Sherlock Holmes can't respect women" lawsuit: the Doyle estate, which at the time owned only a tiny handful of the latest-written stories, the others having already fallen into the public domain, argued that specific personality traits which Holmes exhibits only in those later stories are sufficiently distinctive as to be the valid subject of an infringement claim.)

With respect to various elements of Mickey's visual design, such as his red shorts and signature gloves, the matter is clear: just don't use those for another few years. However, there's another thing Mickey's public domain iterations don't exhibit: speech.

The present consensus among copyright scholars seems to be that "a character speaking" is not sufficiently distinctive as to qualify for protection, but the vocal characterisation with which Mickey Mouse is famously associated may so qualify. So, if you want to be scrupulously safe, you can have him talk, but not in that exact specific voice.

Which raises a fun question: what voice would you give him? Wrong answers only.

[mattpresents]

[dd-the-man-without-fear]

My entire timeline atm:

[negativepeanuthoarder]

[foulanchortraveler]

[ID: A digital painting of an original, Public Domain version of Mickey Mouse labeled 169 out of 365.

This version of Mickey is based on mitochondria.

The background is dark purple with small yellow dusts of ember lighting the scene.

Mickey is outlined in blue and white with his insides drawn like a nervous system. Thin glowing white tendrils act as his tail.

His body is posed facing left with his face looking slightly right.

Below this is an image reading "Public Domain", with a zero inside a circle.

End ID.]

Mitochondria Mickey

169/365 #hunt the mitochondria

Sort of one of the more abstract ones- I kind of wanted to do a mitochondria Mickey for whatever reason and ended up basing it off a medical illustration I found. I have no idea how illustrations about subatomic things go about, but I liked the mix of colors.

I am making 365 new versions of Mickey Mouse for the public domain and releasing them under public domain all year long.

You can join the initiative to #hunt the mouse or suggest a theme yourself via my ask box.