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Comment by tombert | Hacker News Reader

I was actually extremely surprised that Disney didn't bribe congress and stop Mickey Mouse from ending up in the public domain.

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They did. Before it was 50 years and get extended several times just before Mickey would enter public domain.

Yeah they've done a lobbying campaign about a dozen times when Mickey was set to enter public domain. I think GP was saying they're surprised they didn't do a 13th time. Like why give up now?

Because in reality it hasn't entered public domain completely, only the very first movies and the way it was drawn in the 1930's. They are still protecting the one most people all know better.

The funny thing is that Mickey Mouse barely registers for kids these days. We went to Disney World this year and Mickey had a bit part in some of the shows. Elsa, Moana and the other modern characters were the real stars.

It is not even figuring in the Disney logo.

Not exactly true, they have hacked the end of the copyright for SteamBoat Willie, by adding a few second extract of it, as part of the actual "Walt Disney Animation Studios" actual logo.

They cannot sue anymore for copyright infringements, but they may do it the registered trademark way, by saying "It's in our logo !".

The last (general) copyright extension in the US was the CTEA in 1998. What’s happened since then? Google, who has power, money, and incentive to lobby against future copyright extensions.

I'm sure I'm being obtuse here, but what's Google's game in the copyright sphere?

They have Baby Yoda now, much better than Mickey Mouse.

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