After 95 years, the original version of Mickey Mouse is finally losing copyright protection and entering the public domain, where anyone can use the character as long as it doesn’t appear to come from Disney.
Mickey’s first appearance was in the primitive 1928 cartoon “Steamboat Willie,” and that’s the only version that’s entering the public domain — the sweet, hapless Mickey from the 1930s on is still protected.
Another character that recently entered the public domain is Winnie the Pooh. He and Piglet were immediately reimagined as bloodthirsty villains in the slasher film “Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey.”