After the copyright protection period of the version of Disney animation character Mickey Mouse in “Steamboat Willie” expired, the cryptocurrency community began to create related NFT projects based on this original version of Mickey Mouse.
According to the Associated Press, the copyright protection period of the version of Mickey in “Steamboat Willie” expired on January 1, 2024, officially entering the public domain for public use. However, there are still significant limitations, with only the Mickey Mouse captain from “Steamboat Willie” entering the public domain. Disney stated that “more modern versions of Mickey will not be affected by the expiration of the ‘Steamboat Willie’ copyright.”
According to NFT Now, to commemorate this influential Disney character entering the public domain, Alexander Taub, founder of the prominent NFT project Goblin (goblintown.wtf) and Truth Labs development company, created the NFT project “Steamboat Willie Public Domain 2024” based on the image of this version of Mickey.
The total supply of the “Steamboat Willie Public Domain 2024” series is 2000, with an initial price of 0.001 ETH (approximately 2 USD). According to OpenSea data, the floor price of the NFT was 0.1549 ETH (approximately 375 USD) at the time of writing, with transactions reaching 582 ETH (approximately 1.41 million USD) two days after its launch.