this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2025
267 points (95.9% liked)

Comic Strips

15247 readers
1524 users here now

Comic Strips is a community for those who love comic stories.

The rules are simple:

Web of links

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

top 44 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 day ago

Put Steamboat Willie into Cuphead, cowards.

[–] [email protected] 80 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Hey, what's that middle door? I don't think Trogdor is becoming public domain anytime soon

[–] [email protected] 3 points 21 hours ago
[–] [email protected] 33 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The public is my domain to burninate! 🔥

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 days ago
[–] [email protected] 26 points 2 days ago

Superman methinks

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I was just at the store and walked by a display of flower seeds where I happened to notice one called "ferry-mouse" and I immediately thought of Steamboat Willie. Now I have the Baader-Meinhof cosmic algorithm showing me new content similar to what I was thinking about recently.

This is proof that life is just a simulation.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 days ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 82 points 2 days ago (2 children)

The glove joke is that only Steamboat Willie is in the public domain. Wearing the gloves makes him Mickey Mouse, which is why he should absolutely not wear them as his copyright hasn’t expired.

The other doors look like Donald Duck, Superman, and I guess James Bond? I assume their copyright expirations are coming soon—in that order.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Similar to Micky not wearing gloves, Superman wouldn't be able to fly, be vulnerable to kryptonite, wouldn't have heat vision, freeze breath, or the fortress of solitude. Pretty much all the iconic villains would be off limits too.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Yup, not at first. Mickey's gloves are actually a great example as they come into public domain this year as the first film where he wears those comes up next. (IIRC, INAL, don't go violating copyright law based on a comment on the interwebs.)

[–] [email protected] 24 points 2 days ago (2 children)

don’t go violating copyright law based on a comment on the interwebs

Who's gonna stop me?

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Mickey Mouse himself. I heard he's like a ruthless mafia boss.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

Nooooooo!!!! My comment was strictly meant for entertainment! This was not legal advice!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Aaaahhhhhh thanks. Yes I totally forgot that Steamboat Willie was PD now, and about wearing the gloves. Oh well!

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I don't really either. Mickey mouse is now PD, and I assume the other guy (no idea who he is) is too? And daffy duck, someone else and James bond will also become PD soon. Mickey with gloves is still copyrighted, so he can't wear the gloves.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The other guy is the main character of the artist’s comic. He’s just visiting the land of public domain.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago

Or he is directly publishing his comics into the PD

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I wonder if other hand based clothing items are ok. White gloves clearly aren't but what about different colored gloves? What about gauntlets? Inquiring minds want to know how far we can push this before legally we're in the wrong.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Inquiring minds want to know how far we can push this before legally we’re in the wrong.

As long as it's parody like this comic, then you can do pretty much whatever you want. Like how Family Guy can reference 200 random things per episode. It's only becomes illegal when it's serious in nature, like fan made Star Trek stuff. Because it too closely resembles the actual show. If they could monetize stuff like that, they could theoretically become a Star Trek competitor.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

Copyright law only really holds major rights holders accountable to each other. It doesn't matter if you're 100% in the right, if you piss off a rights holder enough they will crush you.

See also CNN vs Canadian United Media.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Hopefully something will be done to extend the copyright of Superman and James Bond. I’d hate for them to be public domain.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 20 hours ago
[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Sehr geehrter Herr Noerdman,

gemäß des Übereinkommens zwischen dem Deutschen Reich und den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika über den gegenseitigen Schutz der Urheberrechte vom 15. Januar 1892 erfahren US-amerikanische Werke die Inländerbehandlung in Deutschland. Folglich erlischt deren Urheberrecht nicht bereits 95 Jahre nach Erschaffung, sondern erst 70 Jahre nach Tod des am längsten lebenden Urhebers (§65 UrhG).

Da Ub Iwerks, zweiter Regisseur und Urheber von „Steamboat Willie“, am 7. Juli 1971 verstarb, erlischt das Urheberrecht für dieses Werk in Deutschland erst am 1. Januar 2042.

Bitte entfernen Sie diesen Beitrag somit umgehend, anderweitig können rechtliche Konsequenzen folgen.

GaLiGrü
Ihre The Walt Disney Company Germany GmbH

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

Hans, hol the Flammenwerfer!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago
[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago

Maxh doch nicht die Arbeit der Anwälte von den Megacorps. Aber trotzdem interessant

[–] [email protected] -2 points 2 days ago (3 children)

When Supes hits the public domain I'm inverting his character by making him MAGA. Fly the rot in everyone's faces.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

you just invented Homelander from "The Boys"

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 day ago

Except Homelander is different. You gotta make America feel like America is doing this by actually using their mascot. Also, Homelander didnt do any of those things in the comics, he was framed by Black Noir.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 days ago (1 children)

You're more likely to be sued by the thousands of people that have beaten you to that particular punch at that point.

Amazon would probably be first in line, which is kinda weird if you think about it.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago

Could you be sued once its public domain? Maybe for the other elements if it was again copyrighted based on those. I get Invincible, but it would feel different with actual superman, and not the one where he landed in Russia.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Evil Superman has been done to death and it's not interesting or edgy anymore.

It's just dumb.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Yeah but it hasn't been done where superman is just deporting all these people using his super speed, taking medicines from the cabinets of single African mothers using his flight. I think it would be effective in showing the effects of csncelling USAID and everything else the administration is doing. Hell, do it in golden age comic style for extra points as trump wants to return to that age but not do anything those presidents did.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

So instead of Supply Side Jesus, it'll be Supply Side Superman?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yeah,paint the ridiculousness of their actions. Have supply side Jesus come in and thank him at the end just like the classics

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

It almost feels like we've come up with a goldmine of an idea for an artist lol.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Red Son was pretty close.

Evil Superman is boring and done to death.

Evil Batman is much more suitable for the times

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That would just be Bruce Wayne acting in best interest of the company. But yeah the banality of it sounds like a great Jekyll and Mr Hyde thing.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Have you read Red Son? Where Superman is born in Soviet Russia, ends up taking it over, and implanting brain chips in citizens in order to make them comply?

It was done 20 years ago. And over and over again people have done evil Superman. It's unbelievably played out. It's boring.

An evil Batman is more than him taking the best interests of the company, and they've actually played with the idea before, though not as much as Clark

One version has him adding drugs to Gotham's water supply to keep crime down. It was okay I guess.

Long story short, I have entirely too many comic books 😅

[–] [email protected] 1 points 22 hours ago

Yeah I have. What I meant was something more in line with the golden age comics, to really smack on that MAGA fever dream, and just having supes be classic campy but doing fucked up shit like taking away crates of medicine meant for African children and shit like that. More of an illustration of what our actions would look like if one of those classic american idols carried them out. I feel.like it would paint a stinging picture.