Basically, you’d say that this one work is copyright free, but any characters appearing in it would still have copyright under other works.
The practical effect is that you’d be able to download this movie, watch it, share it, cut up bits and pieces and use them elsewhere, but any original works based on the characters would not be allowed due to those characters still being covered from other works.
Well that would be different from how it works with Mickey Mouse and Sherlock Holmes, in both of those examples, some works involving the character are public domain and others are still under copyright. As such, people can do their own versions of Mickey mouse as long as it’s the steamboat Willie version of Mickey mouse but not Mickey mouse from more recent works. People can write their own versions of Sherlock Holmes stories as long as they don’t have the characteristics of Sherlock Holmes in later novels.
I suspect the same would apply to Wile E. Coyote if this film went into the public domain, people could use the character as long as it’s the version of the character from this movie and not the version from the '60s cartoons.
Just don’t let studios take the tax write off and this is all fixed
I’ve seen others suggest that it gets surrendered to the public domain if they take the deduction. I’d be fine with that.
Wouldn’t that also put the characters into public domain like Wile E Coyote? I can’t imagine they’d do that for a tax write-off.
It wouldn’t necessarily.
Basically, you’d say that this one work is copyright free, but any characters appearing in it would still have copyright under other works.
The practical effect is that you’d be able to download this movie, watch it, share it, cut up bits and pieces and use them elsewhere, but any original works based on the characters would not be allowed due to those characters still being covered from other works.
Well that would be different from how it works with Mickey Mouse and Sherlock Holmes, in both of those examples, some works involving the character are public domain and others are still under copyright. As such, people can do their own versions of Mickey mouse as long as it’s the steamboat Willie version of Mickey mouse but not Mickey mouse from more recent works. People can write their own versions of Sherlock Holmes stories as long as they don’t have the characteristics of Sherlock Holmes in later novels.
I suspect the same would apply to Wile E. Coyote if this film went into the public domain, people could use the character as long as it’s the version of the character from this movie and not the version from the '60s cartoons.