Mickey Mouse Gets First Horror Parody Film as Steamboat Willie Enters Public Domain; CBR, January 1, 2024

JEREMY DICK, CBR ; Mickey Mouse Gets First Horror Parody Film as Steamboat Willie Enters Public Domain

"Filmmakers are not wasting any time with putting a dark spin on Mickey Mouse following the character entering the public domain.

As of Jan. 1, 2024, Mickey's very first cartoon, Steamboat Willie, became part of the public domain. While modern versions of Mickey Mouse are still protected by copyright, the classic black-and-white version seen in the Steamboat Willie cartoon is now available to be used by filmmakers outside of the Disney umbrella. On the very day that the copyright lifted for Steamboat Willie, it was announced that the character will be spoofed in an upcoming horror movie titled Mickey's Mouse Trap. The first trailer and poster have also been released for the film, which can be viewed below."

How a Dracula Lawsuit Helped Create the Modern Vampire; CBR, April 2, 2022

 CARLOS T. LOPES, CBR; How a Dracula Lawsuit Helped Create the Modern Vampire

"Dracula and the elements that make a vampire didn't all come from Bram Stoker's novel. After Nosferatu first premiered in Germany, exactly 100 years ago, Florence Stoker, the author's widow, attempted to sue the filmmakers over a freely adapted script, later creating a copyright lawsuit nightmare that almost killed the movie. The aura around this subject fascinated audiences and artists, which created the lore that defines modern vampires today."

BYU students compete to make new art out of old — and now copyright-free — works; The Salt Lake Tribune, February 2, 2020

Sean P. Means, The Salt Lake Tribune; BYU students compete to make new art out of old — and now copyright-free — works

"The entries in BYU’s second annual Public Domain Film and Music Festival will screen Wednesday, Feb. 5, at 7 p.m., at the Varsity Theater on the BYU campus. Admission is free.

The contest covers both film and music based on works whose copyright protection has lapsed. Musicians have a week to compose something based on public-domain music, and film crews of five or fewer have 48 hours to make a short film based on a public-domain book.

The contest is run by BYU’s Copyright Licensing Office, which secures licenses for copyrighted educational materials to be used by the university’s instructors, said Kenny Baldwin, the office’s director of operations.

The contest is a way to educate students about how copyright works, Baldwin said, and “inspire the community to embrace their own right as creators of creative content.”"

To Boldly Go Where No Fan Production Has Gone Before; Slate, 7/13/16

Marissa Martinelli, Slate; To Boldly Go Where No Fan Production Has Gone Before:

"The issues at the heart of the Axanar case are complex—in addition to copyright infringement, CBS and Paramount are accusing the Axanar team of profiting from the production by paying themselves salaries, among other things. Abrams, who directed 2009’s Star Trek and 2013’s Star Trek Into Darkness, promised during a fan event back in May that the lawsuit would be going away at the behest of Justin Lin, the Beyond director who has sided, surprisingly, with Axanar over Paramount. But despite Abrams’ promise, the lawsuit rages on, and in the meantime, other Trekkie filmmakers have had to adapt. Federation Rising, the planned sequel to Horizon, pulled the plug before fundraising had even started, and Star Trek: Renegades, the follow-up to Of Gods and Men that raised more than $132,000 on Indiegogo, has dropped all elements of Star Trek from the production and is now just called Renegades. (Amusingly, this transition seems to have involved only slight tweaks, with the Federation becoming the Confederation, Russ’ character Tuvok becoming Kovok, and so on.) Other projects are stuck in limbo, waiting to hear from CBS whether they can boldly go forth with production—or whether this really does spell the end of the golden age of Star Trek fan films.

Axanar may very well have crossed a line, and CBS and Paramount are, of course, entitled to protect their properties. But in the process, they have suffocated, intentionally or otherwise, a robust and long-standing fan-fiction tradition, one that has produced remarkable labors of love like Star Trek Continues, which meticulously recreated the look and feel of the 1960s show, and an hourlong stop-motion film made by a German fan in tribute to Enterprise—a project almost eight years in the making. It’s a tradition that gave us web series like Star Trek: Hidden Frontier, which was exploring same-sex relationships in Star Trek well before the canon was ready to give us a mainstream, openly gay character."

[Op Ed] Copyright piracy has made it expensive to produce our films; Sunday Monitor (Uganda), 11/22/09

[Op Ed] Alec van Gelder, Sunday Monitor (Uganda); Copyright piracy has made it expensive to produce our films:

"Africa’s creative industries could be great success stories but they are held back by weak copyright protection. While the wealthiest Western creators often shout loudest, it is the poorest African entrepreneurs who suffer most. In some important ways, copyright piracy makes it more expensive to make a typical African film than a Hollywood blockbuster.

Piracy makes it harder for film-makers and musicians in developing countries to recover their costs than for their counterparts in Hollywood or Nashville. Where piracy is high (up to 90 per cent in much of West Africa), a musician or movie producer has precious little time to recover the original investment before the rip-offs move in and make it impossible to compete. No African country has piracy levels below about 25 per cent of the market."

http://www.monitor.co.ug/artman/publish/oped/Copyright_piracy_has_made_it_expensive_to_produce_our_films_94900.shtml