How come Felix the Cat isn't public domain yet?

How come Felix the Cat isn't public domain yet?

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>tfw Felix's centenary is nearly in two years

If Felix does go public, wouldn't that mean some could potentially buy the rights to him? If so.... How much would people pay to own him?

...

I love that image so fucking much. What were the russians thinking putting that in a kids game? Scandalous!!

catflag.wordpress.com/2015/01/09/things-you-wont-believe-are-or-arent-copyrighted/

Not Copyrighted: Felix the Cat*
*Though there are a few strings attached.

Felix the Cat has been around for a very long time. Long enough, in fact, that the copyright has expired on his earliest cartoons. You can watch or download one of them here. Here’s another. Here, have a third.

Having said that, there are a few things you need to know before you go hog-wild on Felix the Cat. First, before you put him in your gritty reboot/reimagining with pirate robots, you must be aware that only the very, very early Felix silent cartoons are public domain. Most of the pop-culture presence the character has today dates not from those early cartoons, but from a TV series from the 1950s. Felix’s voice, the characters he hangs around during his misadventures, and his “Magic Bag of Tricks” that he uses to get out of any jam all come from the TV show. You guessed it, that TV show is still copyrighted, and off-limits.

Second, DreamWorks took out a trademark on Felix in 2007. The trademark covers DVDs, CDs, and various types of electronic devices such as cameras, camcorders, audio recording equipment, and data storage devices. It looks like DreamWorks is planning to make some Felix-branded devices for making and distributing digital media. The trademark also gives DreamWorks exclusive right to distribute DVDs, CDs, and TV compilation shows containing old Felix cartoons. Also, the trademark covers guitars. For some reason. If you want to do anything with Felix, you need to be mindful of these restrictions so you don’t violate DreamWorks’s rights and end up in court.

>Analog media is completely fine

>If Felix does go public, wouldn't that mean some could potentially buy the rights to him?
Is this bait?

Dreamworks are going to rape Felix dry.

Because Felix is and should always remain irrelevant.

MY FUCKING EYES

No that doesn't mean it's for sale it means that it's too old for copy rights and anyone in the general public can use it in media with out being sued. Every time Mickey Mouse gets near the age of entering public domain, Disney manipulates things and the age gets extended. Google Mickey Mouse Public Domain for the history of it. Pretty interesting.

because mouse

Are betty boop and koko public domain?

>If Felix does go public, wouldn't that mean some could potentially buy the rights to him?
Public domain works cannot leave the public domain. That would ruin the entire fucking point.

WHAT?! What the fuck is that?!?

het

Because Disney is working on making Copyright eternal, and others benefit from their corporate greed.

Public domain is stupid bullshit anyways

Yes, they most certainly can though it takes strange circumstances.

That gif hurts my eyes.

нeт, not het.

That got me thinking though, If Disney have the power to extend the public domain just so they just keep Mickey and co.,Then why can't they just make it so that they have complete lifetime rights to Mickey Mouse until the company itself goes under instead of just extending the deadline?

I have a question about copyrights. Say I make a popular comic. How do I ensure some fag doesn't make and sell a movie based on my comic years after I'm dead?

Most things don't go into the public domain anymore.

If something gets too old, whoever owns it can just repeal and ask for an extension. Disney does it all the time.

You can't unless you're okay with and have got a big company behind you willing to fight to keep the rights after your death.

>he trademark also gives DreamWorks exclusive right to distribute DVDs, CDs, and TV compilation shows containing old Felix cartoons

A trademark does not give anyone exclusive rights to distribute something in the public domain. Anybody can sell DVDs with public domain Felix cartoons, there are hundreds on Amazon and in dollar stores across the country

This is from the constitution:

>Article I Section 8. Clause 8 – Patent and Copyright Clause of the Constitution. [The Congress shall have power] “To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.”

Copyrights are meant to be a limited time deal, and the public domain is meant to be a public good

That is full of misinformation. That's simply not how trademark works. Maybe Dreamworks lawyers are hoping enough stupid people will just accept that if they send out threatening letters, but none of that would hold up in court.

You can't even stop big corporations from stealing movie scripts and just changing a few names when you're alive. It's not something to worry about.

What kind of filter is that?

Chromatic aberration

Why wouldn't you want some fag to be able to use your works after you're dead? I'd make sure that my works end up in the public domain after my death just to keep Disney from taking them

Speaking of public domain, openculture.com/2017/11/the-internet-archive-liberates-books-published-between-1923-and-1941-and-will-put-10000-digitized-books-online.html

makes mention of this:

>"The Internet Archive is now leveraging a little known, and perhaps never used, provision of US copyright law, Section 108h, which allows libraries to scan and make available materials published [from] 1923 to 1941 if they are not being actively sold," writes the site's founder Brewster Kahle.

Real fucking brilliant.

Oh man that's great. Thank God for the archive.

нeт

What?

Back when Joel streams used to be genuinely funny and not overly annoying/meme-y.

>That much chromatic aberration
Actually disgusting, God I hate when people try to emulate that shit.

I'm a little confused what you mean here. I thought if something is public domain anybody can use it for anything. Really I just don't want anybody using my work and completely ruining it "to appeal to wider audiences" as a cash grab.

Fucking hate disney. All their movies are ideas/books that others have written, and they copyrighted them and claim to own them. Cock suckers.

t. Corporate Leech

Technically you can do a movie of your own if the story is in public domain. Haven't you ever seen those shit bootlegs "Little Mermaid" or "Tarzan" direct to VHS?

>Really I just don't want anybody using my work and completely ruining it "to appeal to wider audiences" as a cash grab.

Well you cant avoid it. But the way copyright works it shouldn't be a problem. By the time of your death + 70 years anyone who wants to rip your work off or exploit its popularity will also be dead.

Consider that Felix the Cat is now public domain, you don't see the floodgates of shit opening up because he's not that popular anymore. Whereas if tomorrow Mickey Mouse went public domain opportunists would just pump out shit to exploit Mickey Mouse's popularity built up by Disney and ruin all the goodwill the character had before anyone else does.

*upvotes*

>2007
Yeah look at how badly they've been raping Felix dry by doing... Absolutely... Nothing with the IP.

They know how to waste all his potential.

Wrong board, ese.

How to Ratatwang Your Panda

youtube.com/watch?v=_o7B5HYXQ8g

Suka Blyat.

Modern copyright (if I remember right) is the creator/owner owns the right for their whole life + 75 years.
Who made or owned Felix? When did they die?

>if something is public domain anybody can use it for anything
Yes, but a Disney type corporation could keep it from ever becoming public domain like they've done with Mickey Mouse.
I wouldn't worry about somebody "ruining" your work by making a shitty version of it, your rotting bones won't have an ego to bruise.

I'm more worried about the comic's message being twisted to suit whatever propaganda future directors are pushing.

plus, disney has proven that they're more than good enough at ruining things anyway.

Het is ew.

It is already too late for your sight.

Spoken like a true Jew.

Total Distortion stream was pretty good

Are any capes close to that point?

There's already a lot of public domain superheroes. Some of which people didn't know are public domain. Like for instance Plastic Man and the Charlton heroes. But it's a certain number of stories that are public domain, and not neccesarily everything.