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I thought surely that would be public domain by now but a brief search indicates that copyright is the life of the author plus 70 years.

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Or rather, copyright is as long as Disney needs it to be. The length keeps getting pushed back, suspiciously close to when Mickey Mouse would enter public domain.

All this to say, don't expect anything to enter public domain anytime soon.

The original Steamboat Willie enters the Public Domain come January 1, 2024. It seems unlikely Congress extends copyrights in the next 8 months.

https://observer.com/2023/02/so-mickey-mouse-is-about-to-ent...

Things that entered the public domain this year: https://publicdomainreview.org/blog/2023/01/public-domain-da...

They have longer than 8 months. Previous extensions have been retroactive, pulling works that had gone public domain back under control.

Considering how angry the right wing party is at Disney right now (see their legal battles and backstabbing in Florida) maybe we'll finally see the extensions stop.

The last copyright extension was in 1998. With the rise of companies like Google, there’s enough lobbying power in the other direction that I suspect (well, hope) that a new extension wouldn’t pass.

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