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You can still buy Steamboat Willie on DVD. Using it as an example is sort of problematic, because it is not an orphaned work, and a lot of people don't see the
by DanTheManPR 12y ago
You can still buy Steamboat Willie on DVD. Using it as an example is sort of problematic, because it is not an orphaned work, and a lot of people don't see the problem with Disney maintaining control over it. A better example would be the many orphaned animated features from the late 20's and 30's who languish in legal limbo instead of being released into the public domain (if you can't think of any examples, that's a symptom of the problem more than anything else).
- dublinben 12y ago>You can still buy Steamboat Willie on DVD On an expensive (~$100), out-of-print DVD, only released in 2005. The work has been orphaned for far more of its lifetime than it has been available.
- bufordsharkley 12y agoWell, that's the Disney Vault in action. (Which is a legitimate release strategy, and it's hard to claim that Disney doesn't generally try to keep its historical works available. I imagine it'll be re-released at some point in the future.)