Quote:
Originally Posted by QuantumIguana
If the oldest Mickey Mouse films enter the public domain, it won't mean that just anyone can make Mickey Mouse films, people could just use those films. Still, trademark protection is trickier than copyright protection. Disney doesn't want to let the earliest MM films enter the public domain as it could weaken their trademark. For many years, Disney didn't produce new cartoons with Mickey, but in recent years they have, and that helps them protect their trademark.
Disney might have had to pay for movie rights to Zorro, but not for Cinderella, Snow White, Alice or Pinoccio. these were free for Disney to use as they saw fit.
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Point taken. I think I was thinking more of some of his other movies like 20,000 leagues under the seas and Treasure Island but used the fairy tales as examples. Though I do wonder how many years out of copyright some of them were when Disney used them. I mean the Grimm Bros. pretty much just wrote down a lot of the old fairy tales but Pinocchio wasn't one of theirs so I'm not sure of how many yrs out it was at the time. Both it and Treasure Island were published in 1883 and were made into movies by Disney in the 1940's and 50's. The Curse of Capistrano (the story on which Zorro is based) was published in 1919 and Disney made their versions in the 50's. Of course the copyright laws were different back then so who knows. But they weren't part of the Disney Trademark either. Just Mickey.
