Disney Scrambles To Protect Its Copyrights

Copyrights on Walt Disney’s earliest cartoons have begun to expire, and barring an act of Congress, the unthinkable will happen in just five years - the copyright will lapse on the first Mickey Mouse cartoon, sending it into the public domain.

Copyrights on several of Disney’s earliest, pre-Mickey Mouse cartoons - films such as “Puss ‘n Boots,” “Alice’s Wonderland” and “Cinderella” - expired last year or will expire this year, 75 years after they were first copyrighted.

The 1928 copyright on “Steamboat Willie,” the first Mickey Mouse cartoon, will lapse in 2003. After that, a flood of early Mickey Mouse films could be swept into the public domain.

By the end of 2004, copyrights on 15 Mickey Mouse cartoons will lapse, including “Mickey’s Folly,” “Haunted House” and “Wild Waves.” By the end of 2006, 20 more Mickey cartoons could enter the public domain. Five years later, copyrights on more than 40 other Mickey Mouse cartoons will have lapsed.

Once their copyrights expire, anyone can distribute the films without Disney’s permission and without paying a dime in royalties.

That is one reason Disney and the other major studios are trying to convince Congress to extend the nation’s copyright term by 20 years. Legislation to that effect stalled in Congress last year, but the studios and the Motion Picture Association of America will try again this year.

Rep. Howard Coble, R.-N.C., who sponsored last year’s bill, will also sponsor this year’s bill. MPAA officials are hopeful that House Judiciary Committee chairman Henry Hyde will take up the bill once Congress returns from its winter recess.

MPAA spokesman Rich Taylor said the extension would bring U.S. copyright law more in line with the European Union.

“It’s an issue that the MPAA is working hard on for the interest of the industry as a whole,” Taylor said. “We’re trying to bring the level of U.S. copyright protection to the same term provided by the European Union, which is already extended to the same span of time that the MPAA advocates extending the U.S. protection to.”

Last year, the bill “languished in committee,” Taylor said, but he noted that the bill “now has some degree of momentum.”

Even if Congress fails to extend the copyright term, Disney will hold the registered trademark on the Mickey Mouse character long after its copyright expires because trademarks - which protect the image, brand name or distinguishing feature identifying the producer or provider of a good or service - can be extended indefinitely.

That could set the stage for a complex legal battle should someone five years hence decides to distribute Mickey Mouse T-shirts and other merchandise featuring scenes from “Steamboat Willie,” which by then would reside in the public domain.

Disney is not the only company worried about lapsing copyrights. Copyrights on numerous other early movies have expired in recent years.