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I foresaw the trademark thing and so have many others. But that doesn't restrict as much as the recently-expired copyright does. Mostly the continuing trademark means that one can't use the Steamboat Willie Mickey Mouse in a way that misleads people that your own work is by Disney.
About the thing about Disney claiming that because they used Steamboat Willie Mickey in more recent woks they can still claim copyright protections on elements of Mickey Mouse that were a thing in Steamboat Willie, I really don't think copyright works like that.
All that said, Disney has a rabid legal team and lots of experience at lobbying congress. Who knows what they're capable of. It's possible they'd try to pull some major fast one and make copyright and/or trademark work differently than they do today.
Mickey in Steamboat Willie just looks... odd.
The 'normal' Mickey is still under copyright so not a lot was gained through Steambiat Willie losing copyright protection.
Sure it would be nice if we coud use more modern elements of Mickey. But I don't agree that this isn't a big deal.
Before 2019, one couldn't have blamed us for expecting nothing to ever pass into the public domain again. Steamboat Willie would have passed into the public domain in 1955 had 13 distinct acts of Congress (prompted by lobbiests from, among others, Disney) between the years 1976 and 1998 not extended copyright each time Steamboat Willie came close to entering the public domain. The last one in 1998, the "Sonny Bono" Copyright Term Extension Act was called by its detractors at the time the "Mickey Mouse Protection Act." Basically Mickey Mouse and Steamboat Willie are probably the most emblematic works in any conversation of copyright run amok. So, if nothing else, the copyright expiring on Steamboat Willie is a hugely symbolic occurrence.
But also, it's not as if people aren't using Mickey in works already. I've seen several web comics just here on Lemmy. And there's a video game in the works.
I'd love to see WB do something -- anything -- with the Steamboat Willie version of Mickey Mouse.
And finally, does Steamboat Willie Mickey really look that different from more modern Mickey renditions? The eyes are probably the biggest difference. But also realize that now that Steamboat Willie (and at least one other early Mickey Mouse animation) is in the public domain, there's room for other modern-looking reimaginings of Mickey Mouse that might differ from the modern Disney Mickey Mouse.