Public Domain questions

[Mark Wright]

Earlier, I wondered if Pete might possibly be in public domain, as his 
first appearance was three years before Mickey Mouse, and the law had 
only just recently changed to extend Mickey Mouse's copyright 
protection before it would have expired.  If the law had not changed 
before Pete's protection expired, he should be public domain by now.

Which got me wondering....
If "Steamboat Willie's" copyright protection had been allowed to 
expire, why does that mean that Mickey Mouse himself would be public 
domain?  Is Bugs Bunny public domain?  I am aware that a good number of 
Warner Brothers cartoons featuring their "main characters" were allowed 
to fall into the public domain a number of years ago (under a different 
law than runs at present.  WB would have to have renewed their license 
for these cartoons, but failed to do so in the time alotted.).  Yet no 
one has suggested that the characters themselves are public domain.  
Just that the cartoons involved could be distributed freely.  
Obviously, I am missing some fine point here.  Could anyone fill me in?


On another matter entirely,
There has been a good deal of discussion about Launchpad McQuack's role 
as a "substitute Donald" in "DuckTales," and I've done some searching 
on Google that indicates that this was done for Marketing reasons.  
Does anyone have more detailed information?  It does not seem as though 
the folks who did "DuckTales" were forbidden to use Donald, as he did 
indeed show up from time to time.  He was just written out of the 
action for the most part by putting him in the Navy.

Thanks for your help,
Mark Baker-Wright

---------------------------------------
SOT Faculty Assistant: Fuller 
Theological Seminary
G.B. Blackrock's Transformers Page:  
http://home.earthlink.net/~gbblackrock/