MSCHF’s next project won’t wait for Mickey Mouse to enter the public domain

After prodding Nike with a Lil Nas X collaboration for “Satan Shoes” and memorializing iconic failed startups as toys, the internet collective MSCHF is aiming bigger and further out with its next drop.

Mickey Mouse is set to enter the public domain in 2024, at which point MSCHF could make a Mickey Mouse artwork. Today, in 2021, we cannot.

Instead, we are making and selling the idea of a MSCHF “Famous Mouse” artwork now, that will not exist–even as a design–until 2024. If you purchase this artwork, we give you a temporary token with a unique code that can be redeemed for the actual piece in 3 years.

Instead of waiting a few more years for copyrights on works from 1923 to expire, MSCHF is taking a decidedly modern approach and selling the idea for its artwork now, tied to a token that buyers can redeem in 2024. The name is still copyrighted so for now this is just a “Famous Mouse,” find out more in the FAQ here.

The tokens will ship in a “plastic slab case” with a sticker covering the code. Buyers are free to sell or trade their codes, and whoever has one can redeem it in 2024, assuming Mickey Mouse actually enters the public domain. As MSCHF points out, “It is entirely possible that Disney will lobby for changes to U.S. copyright law in order to further hoard their IP. After all, what is the law compared to the power of a U.S. corporation?”