Winnie the Pooh is now Public Domain

[DaHeckIzDat]

That's right, Pooh is no longer owned exclusively by Disney. Now anybody who wants to use Pooh can do so. So what's the first thing they decided to do with the sweet, honey loving bear that so many of us grew up with?

Make a horror movie called Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, naturally.

[Gentlegamer]

Make a horror movie called Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, naturally.

[Stalvern]

That's right, Pooh is no longer owned exclusively by Disney.

Disney still owns its version of the character. The century-old original stories by A. A. Milne, which Disney never owned, are what entered the public domain.

(This should have happened decades ago, but Disney themselves have pretty much written and rewritten American copyright law since 1976 to keep Mickey Mouse under copyright indefinitely. Great company.)

[pacman000]

Other countries already provided longer copyright terms. Changes to US copyright laws in the late 70’s, late 80’s, & late 90’s just brought US law in line with the laws of other countries.

Knew Pooh fell into the public domain, but this isn’t the mid-90’s. No one’s releasing “close enough” versions of movies Disney already made anymore; the market for home video’s too small now. Not sure what else you could do with the character.

A horror film is an original idea I guess, but it just looks wrong. I’m sure that’s the point; they want the free publicity something gets when it’s messed up. No thank you.

[Stalvern]

Other countries already provided longer copyright terms. Changes to US copyright laws in the late 70’s, late 80’s, & late 90’s just brought US law in line with the laws of other countries.

1976 and 1988 I'll give you (although the 1976 act was heavily influenced by Disney's lobbying, which is why my post started there), but that's complete nonsense for 1998.

[pacman000]

The EU implemented 70-year-after-author-death copyrights in 1993, over 5 years before the US. Apparently, the Berne convention’s 50 years rule was supposed to protect author’s heirs for two generations, & the EU thought 50 years no longer cut it. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyrig ... _Directive

No doubt Disney & other companies lobbied for longer copyrights in the US, since that was in their interest, but they weren’t the only reason such laws were passed.

Things could be worse; in Mexico copyrights last 100 years after an author’s death.