Disney's Steamboat Willie is a landmark in the history of animation. The first film starring Mickey Mouse to be released with synchronized sound threw silent animation into obsolescence and launched an empire. On January 1, 2024, after almost a century of copyright protection, a version of Mickey Mouse, enters the United States public domain. Note: Mickey Mouse is not entering the public domain in countries that have a life-plus-70 year term for older works. Bitsavage is releasing digital works using newer technologies like virtual intelligence to give this character a modern-day spin! The public domain has had some famous recent arrivals, but this is the most anticipated entry yet. Sherlock Holmes and Winnie the Pooh, entered the public domain with some fun, but this is different. A 95-year trinity-tangled drama; Mickey, Disney and Public Domain. Disney pushed for the law that extended the copyright term to 95 years, which became referred to as the “Mickey Mouse Protection Act.” This extension has been criticized by scholars as being economically regressive and having a devastating effect on our ability to digitize, archive, and gain access to our cultural heritage. It locked up not just famous works, but a vast swath of our culture, including commercially unavailable material. What does public domain status mean for the Steamboat Willie version of Mickey? Copyright expiration allows you to use the original Mickey and Minnie Mouse in new creative works, even though those characters also appear in more recent works that are still under copyright. (https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/mickey/)