Mickey Mouse's character design as of 1930 is in the public domain. But if you ask an AI image model for "Mickey Mouse", you'll probably get something based on more recent versions of the character which are still copyrighted.

Mickey Mouse with red shorts and at least yellow gloves is already in the public domain: https://old.reddit.com/r/publicdomain/comments/18w4lnf/since...

The "modern" Mickey Mouse will be at the public domain in about five years.

Like I said, wait four years and all the main characters most recognised incarnations will be in the public domain.

Or we’ll get more articles about how Disney lobbied for even longer and stricter copyright nonsense.

  > Mickey mouse is now copyright free

Not true.

Scroll down on this page[0] and you'll see the different Mickeys and most of them are not under copyright. You got Steamboat Whillie + gloves but no Fantasia Mickey or later. Definitely no red-pants version.

Unsurprisingly Disney knows what they're doing and they have 95 years to modify a character's looks (and how the public imagines that character) before it enters public domain.

  > pluto is in two weeks

Not the Pluto you're thinking of...[1]

[0] https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/mickey/

[1] https://www.disneydining.com/disney-copyright-loss-pluto-202...

Or they could make, you know, new stuff people want to watch?