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Comment by Maarten88 | Hacker News Reader

I so much hope that one of these countries will quickly change local laws to reduce copyright length to old levels (like 25 years after the life of the author) and start legally distributing (or even producing) movies featuring Mickey Mouse and other Disney "properties".

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Unfortunately, the Berne Convention exists and mandates a 50 year post-death-of-author minimum: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_Convention

Mind you, 50 years would still be an improvement.

50 years would still put Mickey Mouse in the public domain.

Exactly!

I feel like Mickey Mouse is really a special case - Disney employs literally thousands of people promoting their IP, and MM's been in constant ongoing and heavy use by them since the start. Mickey Mouse isn't a 'sitting on their laurels' situation - it's an actively worked bit of IP - not something that would be described as 'passive income'.

Wikipedia says Mickey Mouse was created by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. Walt Disney died in 1966, but Ub Iwerks only died in 1971, so wouldn't it still be a few more years before that 50 years after death runs out?

Most countries would still have bans on post ex facto law.

The TPP has nothing to do with copyright lengths. Copyright length is covered by the Berne Convention, first signed in the 19th century.

I don't think you are correct. See this: https://www.eff.org/issues/tpps-copyright-trap

That's right, but it doesn't affect the copyright length of Disney works that were first published in the US. As signatories of the Berne Convention, the countries must already apply the US's copyright terms to those Disney works.

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