On Jan. 1, 2024, Disney‘s animated short Steamboat Willie—aka Mickey Mouse‘s debut—entered the public domain, meaning any and everyone can post it, use it, and reference it wherever and however they’d like, and the notoriously litigious Disney can’t do a thing to stop them.
And, because of how trademark works, Steamboat Willie entering the public domain means Mickey Mouse (that specific 1928 version of him featured in the film) is also now out there in the wild.
But over on YouTube, people who post clips of Steamboat Willie are still getting copyright claimed by Disney.
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Quinton Reviews, a YouTuber whose enormously long reviews of Nickelodeon shows have netted him nearly 900,000 subscribers, was one of what’s surely at least a handful of people who immediately tested Disney’s commitment to trademark law the moment the clock ticked over to Jan. 1. He uploaded two copies of the film, the original and a modern restoration, and both were copyright claimed.
Quinton told Disney blog Inside the Magic that he also received a copyright claim from Disney’s music division on one of the videos because it detected use of Steamboat Willie‘s soundtrack.
It appears all three claims were automatically filed by YouTube’s Content ID system–meaning Steamboat Willie, despite being in the public domain, hasn’t been removed from the Content ID library.
The instant a film becomes public domain, it should be removed from the YouTube copyright library. I should not have to “appeal” to prove something is public domain – it should be against terms of service to send takedowns over public domain material. pic.twitter.com/vhzJ7hoBCF
— Quinton Reviews🎬 (@Q_Review) January 1, 2024
Quinton told Inside the Magic that a YouTube rep told him to appeal the claims. Another rep told the blog YouTube isn’t responsible for mediating copyright claims.
“It is between the parties involved,” she said. “It’s not up to YouTube to decide who ‘owns the rights’ to content, which is why we give copyright holders tools to make claims and uploaders tools to dispute claims that are made incorrectly.”
If a channel is hit with three copyright strikes over the course of its lifetime, YouTube will take it permanently offline. There is a grace period after a copyright claim is filed where creators can either remove the copyrighted material or appeal the claim, but if the claim successfully goes through, that’s one strike. If all three of these claims were to go through on Quinton’s channel, it would be terminated.
“The instant a film becomes public domain, it should be removed from the YouTube copyright library,” Quinton tweeted. “I should not have to ‘appeal’ to prove something is public domain—it should be against terms of service to send takedowns over public domain material.”
As Inside the Magic points out, YouTube isn’t the only platform struggling with the new public domain debut. Twitch streamer DollipDaze ran a stream Jan. 1 where she live reacted to Steamboat Willie. The VOD of that stream was later muted by Twitch.
we watched steamboat willie after it entered public domain and the vod got muted. so disney? i’m coming for everythign you’ve got. 🧑⚖️ pic.twitter.com/sQyIvI1WQC
— Dollip Daze 💙 (@DollipDaze) January 1, 2024
