The first cartoon featuring Mickey Mouse, Steamboat Willie, is due to enter the public domain on 1st Jan 2024. This has been due to happen on multiple earlier dates however, and the mouse has always dodged the deadline by changes to copyright law that have extended Disney's tenure of ownership over the renowned rodent. Will this time finally be the time, or will he escape again? Place your bets!
The EFF seems very optimistic, and here's a quote from the Author's Guild in 2018 that surprised me:
> The Authors Guild, for example, "does not support extending the copyright term, especially since many of our members benefit from having access to a thriving and substantial public domain of older works," a Guild spokeswoman told Ars in an email. "If anything, we would likely support a rollback to a term of life-plus-50 if it were politically feasible."
Will it resolve yes if first Steamboat Willie will enter public domain?
Note that "Steamboat Willie will enter public domain" and "Mickey Mouse enter the public domain" is a distinct thing, modern MM is a bit distinct from the first appearance.
@M Steamboat Willie. This will bring the original version of MM into the public domain - as you point out, specific changes made since will remain in copyright for longer (although whether Disney could mount a successful suit against someone for, say, interpreting the non-monochrome colour of his shorts to be red - as they themselves ordained later - is probably an open question).
@AngolaMaldives red was set by as early as 1928; see this poster:
http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/22084
Manifold in the wild: A Tweet by tetraspace 💎