Today, the animation figure Mickey Mouse finally was released from +the corporate copyright prison, as the 1928 movie +Steamboat +Willie entered the public domain in USA. Sadly the figure is +still on probation, thanks to trademark laws and a the Disney +corporations powerful pack of lawyers, as described in the 2017 article +in "How +Mickey Mouse Evades the Public Domain" from Priceonomics. On the +positive side, the primary driver for repeated extentions of the +duration of copyright has been Disney thanks to Mickey Mouse and the +2028 movie, and as it now in the public domain I hope it will cause +less urge to extend the already unreasonable long copyright +duration.
+ +The first book I published, the 2004 book "Free Culture" by Lawrence Lessig, +published +2015 in English, French and Norwegian Bokmål, touch on the story +of Disney pushed for extending the copyright duration in USA. It is a +great book explaining problems with the current copyright regime and +why we need Creative Commons movement, and I strongly recommend +everyone to read it.
+ +This movie (with +IMDB ID tt0019422) +is now available from the Internet Archive. Two copies have been +uploaded so far, one uploaded +2015-11-04 +(torrent) +and the other +2023-01-01 +(torrent). +I am very happy to see +the +number of public domain movies increasing. I look forward to +when those are the majority. Perhaps it will reduce the urge of the +copyright industry to control its customers.
+ +A more +comprehensive +list of works entering the public domain in 2024 is available from +the Public Domain Review.
+ +As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my +activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address +15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b.
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