Mickey Mouse, Long a Symbol in Copyright Wars, to Enter Public Domain: ‘It’s Finally Happening’ If you've ever wondered why Mickey Mouse's look has changed over the years, apparently it's so Disney can retain a copyright. However, the original version of Mickey Mouse becomes public domain on January 1st.
There was an antiques show that revealed there were Mickey-adjacent cartoon mice before Mickey. There were toys of them. Hence it being revealed on an antiques show. Funny how Disney was willing to destroy lives over defending Mickey as a copyright, when Mickey was stolen in the first fucking place. Course, all this really means, is satirists will be able to draw Mickey and Minnie fucking without having to change their names like MAD magazine.
