Mickey Mouse Turns into NFT Immediately After Copyright Expiry
On January 1, 2024, a collection of NFTs featuring Mickey Mouse emerged immediately after the iconic character's copyright expired.
Since January 1, 2024, the animated duo Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse from the first film "Steamboat Willie" officially entered the public domain after 95 years since its debut in 1928, meaning Disney no longer holds copyright over these images.
Artists and the general public can now use the images of Mickey Mouse from "Steamboat Willie" without seeking permission from Disney or paying any copyright fees.
Within hours, the crypto community swiftly created digital currencies using Mickey Mouse's image, including the memecoin "Mickey Token" and the NFT collection "Steamboat Willie Public Domain 2024."
Steamboat Willie just became Public Domain at midnight.
— AJT (@ajt) January 1, 2024
I set up a @manifoldxyz mint for the original image of him.
It's a collection with a supply of 2,000 and price of .001 ETH (~$2). If it doesn't mint out it closes in 24 hours.
The first mint was at exactly midnight, the… pic.twitter.com/KmIqgxR6hh
The most successful among them was the "Steamboat Willie Public Domain 2024" NFT collection. After minting 2,000 NFTs priced at 0.01 ETH each on January 1, the value of these NFTs surged to 0.39 ETH on January 2, before settling at 0.2 ETH at the time of writing.
Statistics for the "Steamboat Willie Public Domain 2024" NFT collection as of 2:30 PM on January 2, 2024. Source: OpenSea.
However, Disney still retains copyright over later modified versions of Mickey Mouse. The company has stated its commitment to continue fighting to protect its intellectual property rights for all its copyrighted works.
Different versions of Mickey Mouse over the years. Image: Duke University.
