1. Big Cartoon Forum

    You WIll Need To Reset Your Password!!!

    We just moved hosts on this system, and this has caused a few updates. One is the way we encode and store the encoded passwords.

    Your old passwords will NOT work. You will need to reset your password. This is normal. Just click on reset password from the log in screen. Should be smooth as silk to do...

    Sorry for the hassle.

    Dave Koch
  2. Big Cartoon Forum

    Are You Just Hanging Out?

    Just lurking? Join the club, we'd love to have you in the Big Cartoon Forum! Sign up is easy- just enter your name and password.... or join using your Facebook account!

    Membership has it's privileges... you can post and get your questions answered directly. But you can also join our community, and help other people with their questions, You can add to the discussion. And it's free! So join today!

    Dave Koch
  3. Big Cartoon Forum

    Other Side Of Maleficent

    I have been looking forward to Maleficent with equal amounts of anticipation and dread. On one hand, she is easily my favorite Disney villain, so cold and so pure, and I want desperately to see more of her and her back-story. On the other hand, she is easily my favorite Disney villain, and I would hate to see her parodied, taken lightly or ultimately destroyed in a film that does not understand this great character. The good news is that this film almost gets it right; but that is also the bad news.

  4. Big Cartoon Forum

    BCDB Hits 150K Entries

    It took a while, but we are finally here! The Big Cartoon DataBase hit the milestone of 150,000 entries earlier today with the addition of the cartoon The Polish Language. This film was added to BCDB on May 9th, 2014 at 4:23 PM.

  5. Big Cartoon Forum

    Warner Brings Back Animated Stone-Age Family

    Funnyman Will Ferrell and partner Adam McKay are working on bringing back everyone’s favorite stone-age family. The duo’s production company Gary Sanchez Productions is in development on a new Flintstones animated feature.

  6. Big Cartoon Forum

    Disney To Feast In France

    The follow up to Disney’s 2013 Academy Award Winning short Paperman has been announced, and it will premiere at France’s Annecy International Animated Film Festival. Titled The Feast, the short looks to be based on the same stylized CG techniques used on last years Paperman, a more natural and hand-drawn look to computer animation.

  7. Big Cartoon Forum

    Renegades of Animation: Pat Sullivan

    Pat Sullivan became famous worldwide for his creation of Felix the Cat. What most animation histories gloss over is Sullivan’s checkered past and longtime standing as a wildcat renegade. He didn’t follow the rules. And he made damn sure to fully protect his intellectual properties.

Reset Password! Join Today! NEWS- Other Side Of Maleficent ANNC- 150000 Cartoons! NEWS- Flintstones Movie NEWS- Feast In France AW- Pat Sullivan

Trying to compile list of public domain characters

Discussion in 'Cartoon Trivia' started by Ianissimo, Nov 19, 2015.

  1. Ianissimo

    Ianissimo Newbie New Member

    Joined:
    Nov 19, 2015
    Messages:
    3
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    1
    So far, no luck. I've been shopping this query all around the internet. Now, there's plenty of lists and archives of PD cartoons, but I'm curious about CHARACTERS in particular. Copyright law is something I find fascinating, and also backwards and insane, particularly in America. Apparently, as many animation nerds as there are out there, the laws are too Byzantine even for them to pick apart. Now, I'm going to suggest some characters here that I suspect are in the public domain, though I don't know for certain. Perhaps someone else can pick it up and run with it from here:

    Gertie the Dinosaur

    Little Nemo, et al

    Van Beuren Tom and Jerry

    Farmer Al Falfa

    Col. Heeza Liar

    Flip the Frog

    Maybe I'm wrong on a few of these and I'm sure there's plenty more as well. Any lawyers on the boards?

    Thanks for any and all info, ya'll.
    Ianissimo, Nov 19, 2015
    #1
  2. oneuglybunny

    oneuglybunny Moderator Staff Member Forum Member

    Joined:
    Nov 3, 2013
    Messages:
    2,929
    Likes Received:
    107
    Trophy Points:
    551
    I see what you're getting at: cartoons and other works are copyrighted on an individual basis, and once their copyrights lapse, that cartoon becomes public domain. Characters, however, are a whole different matter. Very often, a popular character is not only copyrighted, but made a trademark as well. And trademarks are in force for the lifetime of the parent company. Note how the few characters on your list come from small studios no longer extant, where nobody thought / bothered to renew the copyright or produce subsequent productions, which grant an automatic extension to copyright deadline. Worse is that Congress tends to lengthen copyright protection by leaps and bounds. In 1776, copyright lasted 28 years, period. Today, copyright lasts the lifetime of the creator plus an additional 70 years.

    Let me also point out that the major studios also have a list of characters "on the bubble," ready to pounce once they become public domain. At that point, a new copyright is filed, giving the capturing studio ten years to do something with that character. As little as a fifteen second pencil test is enough to warrant a seven year extension of copyright. I can't imagine any character created after about 1932 getting loose in the public domain.
    oneuglybunny, Nov 19, 2015
    #2
  3. Ianissimo

    Ianissimo Newbie New Member

    Joined:
    Nov 19, 2015
    Messages:
    3
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    1
    Yeah, that all sounds about right. I understand there are even bills in the works that would make it possible to REcopyright currently public domain works! It's nuts! I know, too, that there's a lot of research and paperwork involved in positively vetting that a character is PD. I don't know with any certainty that the characters I listed are PD, either. The moral is: copyright law is evil. Trademarks are a scary area I know even less about! Anyhow, thanks for the info!
    Ianissimo, Nov 22, 2015
    #3
  4. Bobby Bickert

    Bobby Bickert Inbetweener Forum Member New Member

    Joined:
    Sep 13, 2014
    Messages:
    90
    Likes Received:
    14
    Trophy Points:
    54
    Farmer Al Falfa was still being used in Terrytoons as late as 1956, so the character probably isn't in the public domain.
    Bobby Bickert, Nov 23, 2015
    #4
  5. Ianissimo

    Ianissimo Newbie New Member

    Joined:
    Nov 19, 2015
    Messages:
    3
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    1
    Ah, nice catch! Thanks. Seems like this endeavor is more about marking potential PD characters off the list!
    Ianissimo, Nov 23, 2015
    #5

Share This Page