Saturday, August 23, 2008

Whose mouse?

From the LA Times, Disney's rights to young Mickey Mouse may be wrong

I'm sure nothing will come of it - Disney deploys lawyers faster than campaign managers deploy press releases - but it does serve to highlight how copyright has evolved. The title card for "Steamboat Willie" lists a number of creators, then claims copyright without declaring precisely which of those creators was the holder. Under the 1909 Copyright Act, that was enough to ruin the claim altogether.

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