Betty Boop is one of the most iconic cartoons of the 20th century. A pinup drawn to look like a 1920s flapper, the character debuted nearly a century ago and quickly became a household name: In 1932, just two years after her debut, one newspaper article dubbed Betty Boop "without question…the most popular film personage on the screen today."
Today, the character enters the public domain, meaning it's free for anyone to use—but perhaps only as a dog. The bizarre saga illustrates what's wrong with modern copyright law.
