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Mickey Mouse: Copyrights and wrongs

Mickey Mouse is no longer under US copyright but it’s not all black and white.

Disney’s copyright on ‘Steamboat Willie’, which features the earliest version of Mickey Mouse, expired in the US on New Year’s Day - meaning the image is in the public domain and free to use… with some caveats. So what’s next for Mickey?

Some creatives have already sprung into action. Noor Nanji, a Â鶹ԼÅÄ Culture reporter, tells us about an upcoming Mickey Mouse slasher movie and a video game.

We also hear from Erin Delmore, the Â鶹ԼÅÄ’s North America Business Correspondent and Jennifer Jenkins, a professor of intellectual property law at Duke University, about how public domain laws work. Plus we pitch some ideas of our own.

Email: whatintheworld@bbc.co.uk
WhatsApp: +44 0330 12 33 22 6
Presenter: Hannah Gelbart
Producers: Alex Rhodes, Benita Barden, Adam Chowdhury and Emily Horler
Editors: Verity Wilde and Simon Peeks

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15 minutes

Podcast