The company tacitly acknowledges that 'Steamboat Willie' is in the public domain.

• Disney retracts copyright claim on a YouTuber’s “Steamboat Willie” video, allowing it to be monetizable and shareable worldwide.

• The claim had previously demonetized the video and restricted its visibility and embedding options.

• This move by Disney may signal its recognition of “Steamboat Willie” being in the public domain.

  • general_kitten@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    112·
    10 months ago

    From my understanding the big copyright owners basically have a stranglehold on youtube when negotiating how youtube should handle copyright stuff. The current copyright law was not designed to accommodate platforms such as youtube so if they don’t do as the copyright owners say it could result in a long court battle resulting in a decision that youtube itself is the one violating the law for being the one hosting the non-licensed content on their platform.

    Not a lawyer and don’t even live in the US so i might not be the most reliable source on this though.