(IANAL) It depends also on the specifics of the law. For example, in Finland the copyright protects only the actual works, not any "idealized" representations s

(IANAL) It depends also on the specifics of the law. For example, in Finland the copyright protects only the actual works, not any "idealized" representations such as the "character". That means that you are free to produce your own work with a character that resembles Mickey Mouse and own a copyright for that, as long as you can reasonably show that you haven't copied any Disney's copyrighted work verbatim. The only weapon Disney has against that is the trademark law so if you do it non-commercially (or commercially in a way that doesn't violate trademarks, whatever that means), you are free to do so. Not that I recommend doing so, because that's asking for trouble. But there's this Finnish artist, Kaj Stenvall, who does exactly that with his Donald Duck series: https://www.google.com/search?q=kaj+stenvall&client=firefox-b-ab&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwin3bjexobbAhVDwrwKHd4xB8EQ_AUICigB&biw=1584&bih=883 https://www.google.com/search?q=kaj+stenvall&client=firefox-...