[Foundation-l] Public domain Mickey Mouse. At last.

[Anthony]

On Sat, Oct 22, 2011 at 8:35 PM, Anthony <wikimail at inbox.org> wrote:
> On Sat, Oct 22, 2011 at 8:29 PM, David Gerard <dgerard at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On 23 October 2011 01:21, Anthony <wikimail at inbox.org> wrote:
>>
>>> On what grounds is it out of copyright?  Doesn't a derivative work
>>> carry (at least) two copyrights, the one on the original work, and the
>>> one on the derivative (which "extends only to the material contributed
>>> by the author of such work, as distinguished from the preexisting
>>> material employed in the work")?
>>
>>
>> Read the deletion discussion.
>
> I read the deletion discussion before I posted that.  It does not
> address the copyright on the original work (Steamboat Willie), only
> the copyright on the derivative work.
>
Just found a cite.  Nope, the underlying work is still copyright, and
a copy of the poster infringes on the underlying work.  See Filmvideo
Releasing Corp. vs David R. Hastings II:

"The principal question on this appeal is whether a licensed,
derivative, copyrighted work and the underlying copyrighted matter
which it incorporates both fall into the public domain where the
underlying copyright has been renewed but the derivative copyright has
not. We agree with the Ninth Circuit, Russell v. Price, 612 F.2d 1123,
1126-29 (9th Cir. 1979), cert. denied, 446 U.S. 952 , 100 S.Ct. 2919,
64 L.Ed.2d 809 (1980), that the answer is "No"."