How to get and use the copyright free Mickey Mouse and other public domain creations in Microsoft Office. Add to Word documents or PowerPoint slides.
There’s been a lot of stories about content that is now in the public domain, especially Mickey Mouse. That copyright expiry applies to the USA only. Copyright law is different in other regions, most notably the EU where copyright lasts 70 years after death.
If you’re outside the USA or your content might be viewed beyond American borders, make sure the public domain content has that status everywhere.
Mickey Mouse in Office
The earliest version of Mickey is in the public domain, but it should be used with care, lest the full force of the Disney legal department descend on you.
Wikimedia has a PNG image of the Steamboat Willie version of Mickey including a transparent background that can be dropped into a Word document or PowerPoint slide.
Maybe use the graphic as a little eye-catching detail for an in-house presentation.
The best advice we’ve seen is from Prof. Jennifer Jenkins, Director of Duke University’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain quoted in The Washington Post
“Do exactly what copyright expiration allows you to do and make something awesome with public domain Mickey and Minnie. … Just don’t do it in a way that confuses consumers. And don’t do it in a way that uses later copyrightable elements of copyrighted iterations of the characters.” Stay in the zone of what “trademark and copyright law allow you to do.”
Prof. Jennifer Jenkins via The Washington Post
“Don’t start selling your Mickey Mouse merchandise and don’t make a cartoon and mislead the public into thinking it’s a Disney production,”
Tower of Babel
Another interesting arrival in the public domain is Escher’s famous woodcut, Tower of Babel is now out of copyright in the USA. However, in Europe, the copyright continues until 2043. Wikipedia has a good image you can use.
Animal Crackers
As a life-long Marx Brothers fan, Peter can’t help note that the original Animal Crackers stage production with music, lyrics and book are now out of copyright.
The musical starred the Marx Brothers; book by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind and lyrics and music by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby.
The movie version is still under copyright.
The song music and lyrics to Hooray for Captain Spaulding is now public domain. But another Groucho staple, Hello, I must be going is still copyrighted because it was written for the film not the stage version.
And there’s more …
Duke Law has a good list of what’s out of USA copyright from 1 January 2024.
A few other items caught our eye:
Song lyrics and music: Makin’ Whoopee!(lyrics by Gus Khan and music by Walter Donaldson)
He says, “Now judge, suppose I fail?”
The judge says, “Budge right into jail”
You better keep her, you’ll find it’s cheaper
Than making whoopee
Song lyrics and music: Mack the Knife(only original German lyrics by Bertolt Brecht and music by Kurt Weill; from The Threepenny Opera). Not the later English translation. Likely still under EU still copyright until 2044
Song lyrics and music: Let’s Do It (Let’s Fall in Love) by Cole Porter.
Song recording: Yes! We Have No Bananas (recorded by Billy Jones; Furman and Nash; Eddie Cantor; Belle Baker; The Lanin Orchestra)
Book: Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H Lawrence.
