A closer look
Walt Disney aggressively trademarked the iconic image of Mickey Mouse, transforming the innocent cartoon rodent into one of the most fiercely protected and heavily litigated pieces of intellectual property in the history of global capitalism. For decades, the Disney corporation single-handedly lobbied the United States Congress to repeatedly extend copyright laws, colloquially known as the Mickey Mouse Protection Act, just to prevent their beloved mascot from legally entering the public domain. After nearly a century of ruthless corporate gatekeeping and threatening to sue daycares for painting the mouse on their walls, the earliest version of Mickey from Steamboat Willie finally entered the public domain in 2024. Predictably, within twenty-four hours of liberation, indie developers had already announced multiple low-budget horror movies featuring the mouse as a bloodthirsty killer
