I’ve already done a couple public domain posts this year, notably the one for Public Domain Day and one on Monday about how people are, predictably, already having fun with the Steamboat Willie version of Mickey Mouse which entered the public domain in the U.S. on January 1st.
But if you just want to get deeper into the legal philosophy behind public domain and also how that particularly involves Mickey Mouse, I have a couple of videos for you all, the first being from Devin Stone aka Legal Eagle from earlier this week
I’ve linked to one of Devin Stone’s videos before with last year’s post about Dungeons & Dragons and the OGL and this video is similarly informative and entertaining.
Referenced in the video above, the following video goes more in depth about the thought behind why both copyright and its exclusive rights for creators exist… as well as why the notion of the public domain exists, as well as touching on fair use. It also opines why Disney has opted not to stretch the copyright term out further.
There are tons of more videos and articles opining about this out there. Are there any that are particularly engaging or thought-provoking to you? Let me know in the comments.