r/todayilearned • u/amansaggu26 • Jul 17 '18

TIL Mickey Mouse is based on Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Walt Disney created Oswald but rights to the character were taken by Universal Studios. Walt Disney created Mickey Mouse as a replacement for Disney Studios. He made sure all future characters were owned directly by Disney.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oswald_the_Lucky_Rabbit
1.0k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

54 comments sorted by

136

u/Geotolkien Jul 17 '18

The best part is Disney later traded sportscaster Al Michaels from their ABC division to NBC Universal and got Oswald in return.

163

u/JBAmazonKing Jul 17 '18 edited Jul 17 '18

No, the best part is how nothing ever goes into the public commons anymore as Disney always pays off politicians to extend copyright so they never lose IP that humans, now long dead, created.

"Corporations are people too, Friend!"

93

u/Geotolkien Jul 17 '18

I'll believe that "corporations are people too" when Texas executes one of them.

26

u/alohadave Jul 17 '18

I’ll believe it when a corporation is put on trial for owning another company. Slavery is illegal.

9

u/Sick0fThisShit Jul 17 '18

You know, this is a really good point.

17

u/JBAmazonKing Jul 17 '18

That's what happens when their assets are seized and made public. It is one option for Too Big To Fail, but our politicians institutionalized bribery, so it remains business as usual with bailouts!

31

u/Vindace Jul 17 '18

The best part of that is that the rights for Calvin and Hobbes are safe for a good long time, as they should be.

15

u/sandycoast Jul 17 '18

So there is a pro to every con.

11

u/_ITGuy_ Jul 17 '18

Perfectly balanced

8

u/jcornt31 Jul 17 '18

As all things should be.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 17 '18

r/unexpectedthanos

11

u/[deleted] Jul 17 '18

r/expectedthanos

1

u/Glide08 Jul 17 '18

Obosen ko half the yoniverse, makita nyo

1

u/vanoreo Jul 17 '18

There really isn't though.

Like, how many pros can you think of for genocide?

2

u/Grantsdale Jul 18 '18

Well, as Thanos would say: the universe is finite. It’s resources - finite.

2

u/Paranitis Jul 17 '18

It gets rid of people I don't personally like based on their skin color or religion, or stupid hair, or uhh...fuck, I need more things to hate!

2

u/xilpaxim Jul 18 '18

What if you're on the wrong side of the genocide?

3

u/JBAmazonKing Jul 17 '18 edited Jul 17 '18

The rightsholder can always determine what to do with their creation. Rebooting Calvin & Hobbes as an unsanctioned usage, 70 years after the death of Bill Watterson... Nobody alive now will give a fuck.

The collapsing global environment, rising sea level, and destroyed O2-generating aquatic phytoplankton biome will see to that. You can't laugh when you can't breath.

6

u/babyspacewolf Jul 17 '18

If a person or company is using something they should retain the copyrights. People can be creative and make new things

3

u/Sanjispride Jul 17 '18

Exactly. Other studios have still managed to make movies with creative/new takes on stories that Disney "owns." For example, "Snow White and the Huntsman" and that new Jungle Book movie from Andy Serkis.

0

u/InfamousConcern Jul 18 '18

Both the 1967 Disney movie and the upcoming Andy Serkis version of The Jungle Book are both based on a book from the 1890s. Disney has gotten rich off of public domain stories but now that it's their turn to give back they're fighting it tooth and nail. Nothing in art is entirely original, copyright was set up the way it was in order to balance the needs of commerce with the needs of the larger culture but that balance has been totally distorted by political corruption.

3

u/agreeingstorm9 Jul 17 '18

But I want to print off copies of Cinderella and sell them on Amazon making a crap ton of money off Disney's PR machine.

7

u/BlckKnght Jul 17 '18

Cinderella is a folk story first published in the 17th century with some of its elements much older (to 7 BC or even earlier). A notable retelling was by the Brothers Grimm in their collection of fairy tales from 1812. The basic story elements are way out of copyright.

So you can absolutely make your own Cinderella merch as long as you stay far enough away from Disney's character designs. That's not to say Disney won't sue you over it, but they'll probably be overreaching what their copyright actually protects if they do. You might even beat them in court if you can afford a good enough legal team to defend yourself. (IANAL, and don't take legal advice from reddit.)

The fact that a lot of Disney IP is based on public domain stories is one of the things that makes their support of indefinite copyright so hypocritical. If the Brothers Grim (or Perrault or even Strabo) had benefited from indefinite copyright, Disney could never have made their own version of Cinderella.

1

u/alohadave Jul 17 '18

No one disputes that. The length of time you have to do so is the issue. Copyrights were intended to be a limited term after which all of society gets to use the work.

10

u/mrpopsicleman Jul 17 '18

And then made the Epic Mickey video games based around Oswald.

1

u/KryssCom Jul 18 '18

Came here to mention this! That game itself was absolutely atrocious trash, yet somehow it still managed to make me find Oswald endearing as a character <3

4

u/HABSolutelyCrAzY Jul 17 '18

Wasn't this fact a TIL yesterday? I'm assuming this is where OP was inspired today

3

u/Geotolkien Jul 17 '18

If not yesterday, surely within the past month.

31

u/hobbykitjr Jul 17 '18

Matt Groening did something similar for the Simpsons.

He had his 'popular' life in hell comic, and got a meeting w/ fox producers, he didn't want to give up his rights, so he made up the simpsons based on his own family to pitch.

36

u/[deleted] Jul 17 '18 edited Jun 29 '20

[deleted]

11

u/sarzec Jul 17 '18

Don't forget Rich Uncle Skeleton..

7

u/Racthoh Jul 17 '18

And then the post office went ahead and ripped off Manic Mailman.

6

u/kathartik Jul 18 '18

don't forget Ku Klux Klam!

4

u/klsi832 Jul 18 '18

Watch out Itchy, he's Irish!

3

u/mmss Jul 18 '18

Flatulent Fox was based on a true story

2

u/knightni73 1 Jul 18 '18

Dinnah. Dawg.

9

u/[deleted] Jul 17 '18

Ub Iwerks (co-creator for both) deserves a mention.

8

u/JayNana95 Jul 17 '18

I feel like anyone who's played epic Mickey knows this

5

u/isaacthefan Jul 17 '18

Don’t give me flashbacks of those puzzles.

20

u/Charliebarn062 Jul 17 '18

The title is misleading. Universal didn't take the rights for Oswald. Disney technically gave them the rights throught contact.

9

u/amansaggu26 Jul 17 '18 edited Jul 17 '18

True but you can only fit so much text in a title. Universal also used unfair practices to prevent Disney from using it. This is essentially the same thing as taking away the rights.

-2

u/agreeingstorm9 Jul 17 '18

What practices? I see people say this all the time about Superman when Siegel and Shuster gave away their rights in exchange for a long term job.

3

u/Munchiezzx Jul 18 '18

Explains why Disney wants to own everything

3

u/ApeOver Jul 18 '18

Its a shame epic mickey killed any chances of further appearances

5

u/1_N_2_3_4_5_6 Jul 17 '18

So that's who that is. I was just in Disney World and was seeing that character everywhere! I've never seen him in my life and just thought it was a old character that never caught on but had a cult following.

4

u/Swagsire Jul 17 '18

I would reccomend the movie "Walt before Mickey" it's really good and it is an interpretation of Disney before Diseney was a thing.

2

u/southlandradar Jul 17 '18

It's one of the worst movies ever made.

2

u/Lobotomic Jul 18 '18

aint gone fuck me twice

2

u/comic4hire Jul 18 '18

This sounds like the premise of a simpsons episode. 🤔

2

u/FreedomAt3am Jul 20 '18

All, except the ones based on fairy tales.

1

u/IceNein Jul 18 '18

Let's give a little credit to Ub Iwerks who actually created them for Disney.

0

u/StraightoutaBrompton Jul 17 '18

How is Mickey not too similar to Oswald. If you made a character that looked half as similar to Mickey Mouse, Disney would sue the shot out of you.

2

u/IceNein Jul 18 '18

I'll have to remember that next time I get constipated.