In my searching for new material, I came across a curious bit of animation from Peru.
It's called La alfabetización, una herramienta de liberación or Literacy, a tool for liberation. It debuted in 1971 and was produced by the government to encourage efforts to eliminate illiteracy among the population. I don't think I've seen an animated work quite like it before.
At that time, Peru was governed by a military Junta calling itself the Revolutionary Government of the Armed Forces. Not the first, and sadly not the last, time Peru has fallen under the control of military strongmen. This Junta came to power via armed coup in 1968 and ruled until 1980. You may infer from its name that the mix of politics it promoted included strong social policies to address poverty and its ill effects on the population. Hence, initiatives like the animation above.
The Junta was very active in using mass media to spread its messages, art and cultural works were funded via a mechanism called SINAMOS (National Mobilisation Support System). This raised the question of what this government's attitude towards Intellectual Property was and how that attitude affected current Peruvian culture. At present, Peru uses the life +70 years standard though that was not always the case, there were two major and important legal changes in 1961 and 1996 before that.
As far as I can tell, the Junta maintained the use of the 1961 law. As it stands, it's a little difficult to be certain with multiple legal acts in effect, some of which apply retroactively and some do not. Works that entered the public domain prior to 1971 remain in the public domain. Annoyingly, that's this interesting piece was released just after that. However, I believe this work is still in the public domain as the work was a creation of the government and Peru does not claim copyright on government works. Now, the current government is not the same government as the one that produced this short animation, but it was seen as the legitimate government of Peru internationally and 1968-80 is a long time, recognising it would cause quite a stir and would have to be made clear in the current legislation.
Every New Year's Day is Public Domain day, when many works of art fall out of copyright. Last time the biggest news was Mickey Mouse, next January the United States welcomes Popeye to intellectual freedom. Popeye debuted in 1929 in the Thimble Theatre comics, and was the inspiration of E.C. Segar. Segar died in 1938 which means that Popeye has been public domain in the rest of the world for some years now. Though finally Americans get to join in the fun.
Of course, even in the United States a surprisingly large amount of Popeye material had fallen into the public domain before, including my personal favourite Popeye cartoon Popeye for President! (see above). But with his first appearance falling into the public domain in America, this will give fan artists and other creators freer reign to remix and incorporate him in their own works.
I won't pretend Popeye is a favourite of mine, but he does hold a place in my heart. As a child, TV channels would play his public domain cartoons in the mornings, and as a son of a sailor I've had a soft spot for the guy and his squinty smile, he was certainly more relatable and less distant than Horatio Hornblower. And I do in fact enjoy me Spinach. Oh, and living in the UK we got to enjoy some perks of Segar's legacy, more on that below.
A fun fact about Popeye, his `Goil` Olive Oyl is already public domain in the USA too, she predates the sailor with a penchant for Spinach by one whole ten years. Olive Oyl was one of the original cast members when the strips were first run in 1919.
Scene from Thimble Theatre, 1925
Yanks will sadly have to wait two more years for the Hamburger mooching J. Wellington Wimpy "I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a burger today", to fall into the public domain, as his first appearance was in 1931. Which makes sense, he is after all a reflection on the Great Depression.
Speaking depression Wimpy, in the UK there was once a popular burger restaurant chain named after Wimpy. That's right, Popeye as a brand was once so popular that a supporting character's name could shift burgers and build an international food company. The original Wimpy's were American, but its biggest markets were the UK, South Africa (during Apartheid) and Ireland. In fact, for a time Wimpy was so enmeshed in the UK economy that the Provisional IRA bombed one of their restaurants as part of their campaign to wreck the British economy and spread general panic. One bomb disposal officer was killed while trying to disarm the explosive.
I'm not old enough to remember its golden period, nor have I ever had a Wimpy burger, since I've never lived in a town where they still had their last remaining branches. But it is remembered by older people, who lament its loss when the restaurant is brought up in conversation. It was still around in a limited fashion when I was a lad though, I can remember seeing adverts on TV, and Popeye themed wind-up toys that were given away in its kids meals during a doomed attempt to survive competition with McDonald's, another fast food chain that has a history with the Provisional IRA now that I think about it. Looking back, I don't think naming a burger restaurant after a man named Wimpy and was famous for not actually paying for those burgers he snaffled was a great idea. But, then again, I'm no marketing genius.
Yes, after Millions of dollars in lobbying efforts, after two decades of delay, Steamboat Willie the first animated short starring Mickey Mouse is finally public domain. Many have rushed to upload the short to their video platform of choice, which is of course YouTube. And yet many are finding that their videos are being claimed by the Disney corporation anyway. What gives? Well, as someone who uploads public domain material to YouTube regularly, including Steamboat Willie, nothing has changed.
There are two types of copyright triggers on YouTube, manual, where someone actively makes a claim and the much more common automatic flagging system which scrubs through whatever you upload to YouTube as part of the upload process, usually after the SD version is ready but before HD if that is applicable. And after uploading, your video will be subject to periodic and random checks for the rest of time. If you've ever received an e-mail out of the blue informing you that a video you uploaded ten years ago has been blocked in Greece or cannot be monetised because of a claim by a company in Australia, that is usually why that has happened.
This is an automatic flagging. Neither automatic nor manual copyright claims, blocks and strikes do not have legal standing and are not in themselves evidence of anything. But this is especially true of automatic versions when a work's copyright expires. All they mean is that someone - and it's important to remember that this could be anyone - has made a copyright claim on some material and either consciously made it against your upload or the automatic system thinks your content is a match for what's in its database to check for. So, once material has been added to the system to check it stays in there, it's up to the submitter to make changes and there is no obligation for them to do so nor sanction if they fail to do so.
Last year, Disney was blocking my upload of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit's Trolley Trouble's. I disputed it and to my surprise, instead of running out the clock or trying to intimidate me into dropping the issue, they promptly responded and dropped the claim. A while ago, YouTube informed me that my channel could qualify for partnership, as part of the sales pitch it was keen to stress that I could make use of its checking system, simply upload my video to it, and it would take care of all the rest for me. I think you can see several of the potential openings for abuse right there.
Why such a boon for shady dealers and outright committers of copyfraud? Well, it's not YouTube's fault, well not exclusively its fault. It's the fault of Intellectual Property legislation. In particular the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the dreaded DMCA. Under the DMCA system, YouTube and all other websites operating under jurisdiction of the United States of America have to take allegations of copyright infringement at their word and act to remove it. This leaves it up to the user to challenge it if those complaints are unfounded. And sites aren't even obligated to provide you the means to challenge it. YouTube gets lots of criticism for its copyright policies, but I will give it the barest slither of credit, it does allow users to make a challenge in the case of abuse, from what I've seen other websites just act and then ban the user or send them a warning. YouTube's process is extremely flawed, especially if you don't have a lawyer on retainer, but it has a process.
If you're curious why websites behave this way, it's because that's a requirement of the `Safe Harbour` protections. So this is a compromise between big media companies and big tech companies. YouTube and all the big online media sharing sites are full of piracy, but they rarely face any legal consequences, because the liability is transferred to the anonymous individual users. This aspect was key to what made that lawsuit by the channel Business Casual so surprising, the alleged actions of YouTube as a company risk losing that Safe Harbour status and would put them at risk of direct litigation for copyright violations and other activities by the company and its administration. So, it will be interesting to see how that class action lawsuit they're building plays out.
But back to the Mouse, because of how 'Safe Harbour' works there is no attempt at evaluation or judgement, it is a simple as Step 1: Report and Step 2: Remove as an automatic function, this means that the copyright claims on YouTube videos don't matter beyond restricting and annoying some people. The system by design eliminates evaluation and judgement of merit until other parties take further action. My upload of Steamboat Willie is blocked in several nations, and according to YouTube the claim is made by Disney, but I won't have any proof that Disney is in fact behind the claim unless I proceed through the dispute process up to a point where YouTube enacts a "contact the claimant" option and gives me an e-mail address, that is how little effort YouTube takes in verifying the identities of the entities that claim their legally protected material is being harmed by its service. Oh, and for extra fun, even when you win a dispute, there is nothing in place to stop the same content being claimed, nor being claimed by the same people you fought off last time. Warner Bros, are pretty infamous for repeatedly trying to re-claim their former properties to take just one example. What determines the copyright status of works is legislation and case law. So, if you live in one of those countries that keeps blocking the Mouse, you need to look at your own nation's legal codes; does your nation have the "rule of shorter term" for foreign works? Is the work still in copyright in your territory, and if so in what fashion and to whom is the representative? A company arbitrarily actioning what is often an automatic response does not mean anything.
Addendum
On the 13th of March, Disney failed to escalate my challenge copyright dispute over the content of the video, during the dispute period Disney did however remove its region blocks and changed to what's called an "ad grab" copyright claim. That's the claim that doesn't affect the upload but does monetise it for the claimant. So, looks like we have clarity, Mickey Mouse the character is public domain world wide.
That the public domain contains a lot of animation and cartoons is fairly well known, animation lags behind film by only a few years after all. And sadly its been a cut throat business from the beginning with many companies going bust despite a lot of effort and short term success. But, what's surprising is that even the big surviving giants of the industry including Disney and Warner Bros have some of their output in the public domain even before the year of publication takes effect.
I know from discussions and chats that many are surprised of Warner Bros, especially when its confirmed that the list of available content includes the crown jewels of that companies animated empire Looney Tunes. How could this be when Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and all the rest continue to be marketed heavily and Warner Bros and whoever owns them at present are infamous for their well-funded and vicious legal teams?
Well, some of their output like the Private Snafu cartoons were made by order of the United States Government so fall into the public domain that way. But for the rest and the proper Looney Tunes cartoons the answer is fairly simple. Greed. The Warner Bros company was named after the Warner brothers Albert, Jack, Harry and Sam who founded the studio that became the lynch pin of its corporate holdings. Jack is the only one that's relevant to the story. In 1955 the Warner brothers decided to sell Warner Bros, but at the last moment Jack Warner bought the company back from himself and the rest of the family. Essentially Warner Brothers was now Warner Brother, with the rest of his family shown the door, Jack Warner was in control.
Jack Warner liked making money, but by all accounts viewed animation with contempt. Instead of funding and supporting the transition from theatrical shorts to the emerging TV market Jack sold most of his studio's animation back catalogue. Over the next few years the Looney Tunes and Warner Bros other animated output kept changing hands, who owned what and the rights to do with them was very confusing. In the confusion the 28 year term of copyright for many of the older cartoons went up for renewal, and passed by. So a quick payment in 1955 ended up costing Warner quite a lot in relicensing in the future. Unfortunately this doesn't apply to all of the Looney Tunes back catalogue, Warner Bros eventually realised their error and brought the catalogue back under control long enough to keep everything from expiring.
What follows is the fullest list of Warner Bros animation that entered the public domain in the 20th century.
Looney Tunes DVD and Video Guide
Looney Tunes in the Public Domain
The following is a complete listing of every single Warner Bros. cartoon
in the public domain. These titles fell into the public domain after
years of copyright neglect. They are most commonly found on video
cassettes, DVDs, and on local television channels.
Information courtesy of Film Superlist: Motion Pictures in the U.S. Public Domain, 1894-1939, Film Superlist: Motion Pictures in the U.S. Public Domain, 1940-1949, and Film Superlist: Motion Pictures in the U.S. Public Domain, 1950-1959 all by Walter E. Hurst.
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90 Day Wondering [government film]
Ain't Nature Grand!
Ali Baba Bound
All This and Rabbit Stew
Any Bonds Today? [propaganda film]
Bars and Stripes Forever
Battling Bosko
Big Man From the North, The
Big-Hearted Bosko
Booby Traps [Pvt. Snafu]
Boom Boom
Booze Hangs High, The
Bosko and Bruno
Bosko and Honey [unreleased]
Bosko at the Beach
Bosko at the Zoo
Bosko Shipwrecked!
Bosko the Doughboy
Bosko the Lumberjack
Bosko the Talk-Ink Kid [pilot]
Bosko's Dog Race
Bosko's Fox Hunt
Bosko's Holiday
Bosko's Party
Bosko's Soda Fountain
Bosko's Store
Box Car Blues
Case of the Missing Hare
Censored [Pvt. Snafu]
Chow Hound, The [Pvt. Snafu]
Coming! Snafu! [Pvt. Snafu]
Confusions of a Nutzy Spy
Congo Jazz
Corny Concerto, A
Coy Decoy, A
Crosby, Columbo, and Vallee
Crowing Pains
Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur
Daffy Duckaroo, The
Daffy's Southern Exposure
Daffy–The Commando episode
Day at the Zoo, A
Ding Dog Daddy
Dover Boys At Pimento University (Or The Rivals At Roquefort Hall), The
Drafty, Isn't It? [government film]
Ducktators, The
Dumb Patrol [1931]
Early Worm Gets the Bird, The
Eatin' On The Cuff (Or, The Moth Who Came To Dinner)
Falling Hare
Farm Frolics
Fifth Column Mouse
Fighting Tools [Pvt. Snafu]
Fin N' Catty
Foney Fables
Fox Pop
Freddy the Freshman
Fresh Hare
Gas [Pvt. Snafu]
Get Rich Quick Porky
Going Home [Pvt. Snafu]
Gold Rush Daze
Goldbrick, The [Pvt. Snafu]
Good Egg, The [Mr. Hook]
Goopy Geer
Gopher Goofy
Great Big Bunch of You, A
Gripes [Pvt. Snafu]
Hamateur Night
Haunted Mouse, The
Have You Got Any Castles?
Henpecked Duck, The
Hitch in Time, A [government film]
Hittin' the Trail For Hallelujah Land
Hobby Horse-Laffs
Hold Anything
Hollywood Capers
Hollywood Steps Out
Home Front, The [Pvt. Snafu]
Hop and Go
Hot Spot [Pvt. Snafu]
I Love a Parade
I Wanna Be a Sailor
I Wish I Had Wings
Impatient Patient, The
In the Aleutians [Pvt. Snafu]
Infantry Blues, The [Pvt. Snafu]
Inki and the Minah Bird
It's Got Me Again!
It's Murder She Says [Pvt. Snafu]
Joe Glow the Firefly
Jungle Jitters
Lady, Play Your Mandolin!
Lecture On Camouflage, A [Pvt. Snafu]
Meet John Doughboy
Moonlight For Two
No Buddy Atoll [Pvt. Snafu]
Notes to You
Nutty News
One More Time
Operation: Snafu [Pvt. Snafu]
Outpost [Pvt. Snafu]
Pagan Moon
Pay Day [Pvt. Snafu]
Pigs in a Polka
Point Rationing of Foods [government film]
Porky Pig's Feat
Porky's Ant
Porky's Bear Facts
Porky's Cafe
Porky's Garden
Porky's Midnight Matinee
Porky's Pastry Pirates
Porky's Pooch
Porky's Preview
Porky's Prize Pony
Porky's Railroad
Prest-O Change-O
Private Snafu Vs. Malaria Mike [Pvt. Snafu]
Puss N' Booty
Queen Was in the Parlor, The
Red-Headed Baby
Return of Mr. Hook, The [Mr. Hook]
Robin Hood Makes Good
Robinson Crusoe Jr.
Rookie Revue
Rumors [Pvt. Snafu]
Saps in Chaps
Scrap Happy Daffy
Secrets of the Caribbean [Pvt. Snafu]
Shanty Where Santy Claus Lives, The
Sheepish Wolf, The
Sinkin' in the Bathtub
Smile, Darn Ya, Smile!
Snafuperman [Pvt. Snafu]
So Much for So Little [government film]
Spies [Pvt. Snafu]
Sports Chumpions
Tale of Two Kitties, A
Target: Snafu [Pvt. Snafu]
Three Brothers, The [Pvt. Snafu]
Three's a Crowd
Timid Toreador, The
To Duck.... Or Not To Duck
Tokio Jokio
Tokyo Woes [Mr. Hook]
Tree's Knees, The
Ups 'N Downs
Wabbit Who Came to Supper, The
Wackiki Wabbit
Wacky Blackout
Wacky Wabbit, The
We, The Animals – Squeak!
Westward Whoa
Who's Who in the Zoo
Yankee Doodle Daffy
Yodeling Yokels
You Don't Know What You're Doin'!
You're Too Careless With Your Kisses
Sourced from Film Superlist: Motion Pictures in the U.S. Public Domain by Walter E. Hurst. Archive link
On the 1st of January 2024 after decades of intensive lobbying Mickey Mouse will enter the public domain. His first appearance the 1928 animated short Steamboat Willy will lose its copyright protection in its country of origin the United States of America and thus every other territory like the United Kingdom that has the rule of shorter term and country of origin.
Still from Mickey Mouse and the Mad Doctor
Of course several Disney products have already entered the public domain because registrations weren't renewed and for works contracted to the United States government during WWII. And this includes some works that feature the Disney Empire corporation's mascot and superstar Michael `Mickey` Mouse. If you come across a collection of comic strips called "Uncensored Mouse" that is a collection of Mickey Mouse comic strips that are in the public domain. The importance here is that when a character's first appearance enters the public domain it frees up that character for re-use in many creative ways, whereas previously we were limited to the handful of works that were in the public domain.
Though its important to keep in mind that Disney will retain copyright on many later works documenting the Mouse and his adventures, we'll have trademarks to deal with, but this is still a big deal.
Political advertising is pretty dire, its the most transparent of advertising, "give us your vote and in exchange you will have x" so this short 1944 animation was pleasant surprise. While still extremely blunt it uses clever imagery and a simple plot with a hero and a villain. If I didn't know FDR was a real person and President or about WWII I might have thought this was a cartoon morality story. Well, the cheering for the "win the war special" train that is armed to the teeth would've made for a strange moral.
This short was the first major work of United Productions of America, then still known by its boring name Industrial Films. It was funded by United Auto Workers and the Congress of Industrial Organizations, two powerful American labour organisations. The short is an openly pro Franklin Delano Roosevelt campaign film during his bid to be re-elected President in 1944. He won by a comfortable margin, it was the last election campaign he ran as he died in 1945. His opponent Thomas E. Dewey I had not heard of until watching this film, unless you count Truman holding up the newspaper with the infamously incorrect headline. So I don't know how accurate the caricature of Dewey's positions were.
But in a vacuum, my sympathies lie more with Roosevelt based on the argument of the film. The workers struggling against a candidate supported by a businessman who has fascist sympathies, its not a hard choice really. One detail I enjoyed was that during the presentation of Dewey's social policies, or rather lack of policies, the music accompanying the scene is a rendition of the Preacher and the Slave, a popular labour song written by Joe Hill an important organiser for the Industrial Workers of the World, untill his death by firingsquad in 1915.
So an ashamedly partisan piece, but the sequences and images were quite clever and well thought out. The hallucinations of the rail worker and the increasingly demonic capitalist out class thousands of political cartoonists. Though given that United Productions of America was founded by ex-animators for Walt Disney who parted ways with him after the 1941 cartoonists strike I'd hazard a guess that they had some personal experience with a similar tycoon with some interesting political views.
The British Empire dominated much of the earth for several hundred years. To some this statement is a strange source of pride, an attitude of toxic superiority. For others this is something to feel embarrassed about. What's strange to me is that the Empire is barely talked about in modern Britain, its legacy is inescapable, but outside of history modules and specialised programming and literature its relegated in general discussions to vague mentions, this is true for positive (usually something about trains and ending slavery) and negatives, war, occupation and slave trading etc.
So this short piece of early British animation The House that John Built is very interesting to me. Produced in 1928 by the Empire Marketing Board, the short was deisgined to have a wide audience, and was a forum for the Empire to justify and promote itself. I was surprised how it chose to do it. In this short Britain and the Empire are shown in purely economic terms. The greatness of both is shown first in their agricultural and cattle production, and then cemented by translating that bounty into a value in Imperial pounds. No talk of civilisation, or global stability, just animals representing statistics that showed annual growth in exports and imports.
The Empire is great as it is a great system for the growth of capitalism. You have doubts about our Imperial accomplishments? Nonsense! Just look how well the pork markets were doing in 1925. The House that John Built is not an isolated endeavour. The Empire Marketing Board sponsored many marketing pushes to drive home the economic power of the Empire and to encourage purchasing. Economic patriotism from Canada to Australia, Nile to Cape Town. Looking back I find this revealing, while the talk of civilising the wild lands, and building technological progress have lingered on in the popular imagination, its clear from looking at the evidence of the time that as far as the Empire builders were concerned, the Empire was first and foremost a means to do business and enrich themselves.
The Sinking of the Lusitania (1918) is a silent animated short film by
American cartoonist Winsor McCay. It is a work of propaganda re-creating
the never-photographed 1915 sinking of the British liner RMS Lusitania.
At twelve minutes it has been called the longest work of animation at
the time of its release. The film is the earliest surviving animated
documentary and serious, dramatic work of animation.
In 1915 a German submarine torpedoed and sank the RMS Lusitania; 128
Americans were among the 1,198 dead. The event outraged McCay, but the
newspapers of his employer William Randolph Hearst downplayed the event,
as Hearst was opposed to the US joining World War I. McCay was required
to illustrate anti-war and anti-British editorial cartoons for Hearst's
papers. In 1916, McCay rebelled against his employer's stance and began
work on the patriotic Sinking of the Lusitania on his own time with his
own money.
The film followed McCay's earlier successes in animation: Little Nemo
(1911), How a Mosquito Operates (1912), and Gertie the Dinosaur (1914).
McCay drew these earlier films on rice paper, onto which backgrounds had
to be laboriously traced; The Sinking of the Lusitania was the first
film McCay made using the new, more efficient cel technology. McCay and
his assistants spent twenty-two months making the film. His subsequent
animation output suffered setbacks, as the film was not as commercially
successful as his earlier efforts, and Hearst put increased pressure on
McCay to devote his time to editorial drawings.
