Steamboat Willie, the first cartoon featuring Mickey Mouse, entered the public domain on January 1 this year. Will there be any movie that meets all of the following criteria?
1 - US theatrical release in 2024
2 - not created by Disney or any affiliated company
3 - has Mickey Mouse in it, including a clip of Steamboat Willie or any other use of the character
4 - would not meet the "fair use" standard, e.g. a scholarly work criticizing Mickey Mouse
5 - nobody says it's licensed
Will resolve early if this happens, though you might have to tell me. I'll look around at close to see if I can find any evidence this happened, and if not then resolve NO.
1,000
1.00Media now reporting 2 movies https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/multiple-mickey-mouse-horror-movies-announced-as-steamboat-willie-enters-public-domain/ar-AA1mmSKQ
To other comments, the theatrical release in 2024 will likely be the sticking point
@MattLashofSullivan yeah, I still haven't bet, even with this information. Not sure if it will meet the criteria (theatrical release, release date, would have been fair use as a parody anyway, etc), but thought it was worth sharing. Curious to see how this one goes.
@robm i don't think that would be fair use, tho I'm not a copyright scholar, and it seems like it will meet the remainder of 2-5, so it depends on if it's released in theaters this year.
@MattLashofSullivan seems fair. If the creators thought it was fair use, they wouldn't have had reason to wait for this year.