The Mouse That Ate the Public Domain

An anonymous submitter writes: "Antitrust lawyer Chris Sprigman has written a thoughtful column In Findlaw's Writ on the issues behind the 1998 Copyright Term Extension Act and the legal challenge (Eldred v. Ashcroft) to that law. I only spotted one mistake. Sprigman states that Disney's 1967 movie The Jungle Book came out a year after Kipling's copyright expired, but I can't see how, under the terms of the 1909 copyright law, an 1894 book could have had its U.S. copyright expire much later than 1950. Except for that one glitch, (if that's what it is) it's a fine column. There's no explicit mention of computer software except in the mention of the title of a 1970 article by Stephen Breyer, but everything he says about the usefulness of the public domain in literature applies with a vengeance to source code. And his is discussion of the U.S. Constitution's framers reminds us (though Sprigman doesn't develop this point extensively, and might not himself put it in as blunt terms as I'm about to) that there's even a deeper reason than utility to cherish the public domain: it is our right."

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[BlackGriffen]

Why are so many posts being modded as troll, when similar posts aren't? Just curious.

BlackGriffen

Have you seen "Steamboat Willie"?

[Yekrats]

I apologize for the somewhat off-topicness.

Have you seen this film that Disney is so trying to keep out of the public domain? Boy-oh-boy, Steamboat Willie sucks. It is simply a horrible film. For those of you who care, and those of you who don't, here's my synopsis.

Mickey is piloting a steamboat ship when old Pete comes to the bridge, roughs Mickey up a bit and tells him to scram. Pete chews some tobacco, doing tricks with the juice, until he splats tobacco juice into his own face. Meanwhile, the boat makes a stop to pick up some farm animals. In doing so, Mickey gets squirted in the face by a cow's udder. The boat leaves without Minnie Mouse (huh? where did she come from?), so Mickey uses a winch to pick her up by her underwear and hauls her onto the deck.

A goat eats Minnie's violin and sheet music, so the mice get the idea to wind his tail like a music box. The goat starts bleating the song "Turkey in the Straw." Then Mickey goes around the ship, torturning all of the animals in time with the music. He pulls piglets' tails to make music; he repeatedly strangles a cat then tosses it by its tail. Old Pete catches him, and tosses him into the potato bin, where Mickey hits a mocking parrot with a potato.

That's where it ends. I'm not making this crap up. It's so awful, it's laughable. This is the precious commodity that Disney is trying to save.