🐭 How the Mouse Stole the House

A not-so-magical tale of copyright, control, and corporate wizardry in the age of AI.

Fictional AI-generated movie cover of film that doesn't exist. Yet.

Many people will not like this post. Maybe I'll get banned from Magic Kingdom.

Oh well. No more $28 cheeseburgers and Chinese-made souvenirs sold at 1000% profit.

Disclaimer: I don't care. I speak my mind and speak for all creative people who want to express themselves with generative AI..

You may have heard that Disney and Universal have filed a lawsuit against Midjourney, accusing the AI platform of copyright infringement for training its models on publicly available content — including imagery resembling Disney characters. Their goal: to set a legal precedent that could restrict how we use AI to create and express ourselves.

And all this coming from a company that prides itself on fantasy, hype, cheap spinoffs of Marvel and Star Wars storylines, witchcraft, and now AI-cloned voices.

But here’s the twist:

The original 1928 version of Mickey Mouse — Steamboat Willie — officially entered the public domain in 2024. That version is fair game for creators. So maybe we can getaway with AI versions of old-school Mickey.

However, Disney’s case appears to blur the line between what is legally public and what is still corporately protected. And let’s not forget: many characters from that early era were wrapped in offensive, outdated depictions — like the crows in Dumbo speaking in “jive talk,” one even named Jim Crow. The Jim Crow caricature itself was rooted in exaggerated and demeaning portrayals of African Americans, reinforcing harmful racial stereotypes.

Important clarification:

This post is not about race.

 It’s about freedom of expression, AI rights, and the future of creative ownership. But it is also necessary to acknowledge the full history of these characters as we debate who gets to use them — and how.

🎭 It’s deeply ironic that a company built on magic, imagination, and borrowed folklore is now leading the charge to limit how others use emerging creative tools like AI.

So what is the future?

Are we entering a golden age of accessible creativity — or sliding back into the Napster era, where your 12-year-old might face a lawsuit for making a gangster remix of Donald Duck?

Will we celebrate innovation...

 or criminalize imagination?

Stay creative. Stay informed. And stay alert — because the future of storytelling is being negotiated right now.

#AI #Copyright #Disney #Midjourney #FreeSpeech #GenerativeAI