I'm out if the loop, is this a joke referring to the t-shirt bots on Twitter lol

Not copyright, trademark. At least, that's the rules those comments assume Disney is following. It's pretty dumb, I can't think of any world those characters get genericised, but eh.

it’s that they can lose the trademark if they don’t try to defend it

So the copyright and trademark system needs to change then.

Also, those laws were essentially ghostwritten by Disney and the like, so I very much doubt that wasn't an intentional thing so they can go "look, we have to sue you, our hands are tied!"

they can lose the trademark if they don’t try to defend it

This is true, but that's if another company is using a similar logo as their own. Like, if a pet store used the Mickey Mouse logo, of course they're going to be sued.

If a daycare uses Mickey Mouse to decorate their classroom, Disney doesn't have to sue because the trademark isn't be used separate from Disney. The Daycare, and kids, are using it because it's Disney, so there is no confusion about trademark ownership.

At the very least, Disney could simply write them a letter allowing them to use depictions of Disney characters inside the school so long as it's not for advertising or commercial purposes and the art is done by a student or teacher.

I anal as well

Yeah and they're being extra weak as this is the steamboat willy Micky which falls into public domain Jan 1st 2024 which is only a couple of months away.

But it says it isn't parody!

Woopsie just accidentally extended that period again by 30 years

Disney seems to have seen some writing on the wall and pivoted into a trademark focus instead of endless copyright extensions. This is probably why they've been using Steamboat Willy more in some logos in the past few years. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't be surprised at all to see another extension, but it's never gotten this close before and they don't seem to be campaigning to extend it at the moment.

Surprised they didnt extend copyright for another thousand millenia.

If you didn't know, I believe this image was made in response to specific bots that would throw up a link to an automated listing, with stolen art copy pasted on a t-shirt jpeg, whenever people on twitter said "I want this on a shirt".

Small artists had trouble defending their art from being stolen by these bots, and this image (and subsequent comments like "I want to buy this shirt") was a trap to get these bots in trouble with disney.

If you knew all this and I'm just rambling, ignore me

The funny thing is though, I would buy this on a T-shirt