“US copyright law says the rights to characters can be held for 95 years.”

95 years ago was also about when the cinema and recording industries began.

Since then, I’ll argue, all recorded entertainment and theatrical performances have become “fixed” into our culture similar to how Plato, the Bible, and Shakespeare became cultural touchstones due to literacy and the printing press.

And now, as they enter the public domain, Mickey and others are becoming, for better or worse, an inescapable part of our common heritage.