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O'Reilly Commits to Short Copyright Durations
Sam King writes "I found the following link on the lisnews.com site: O'Reilly Adopts 1790 Copyright Durations. A small but encouraging step taken by a publisher." We should provide direct links to O'Reilly's announcement and the Founder's Copyright website.
If it was published before 1923 it is in the public domain. Otherwise here is a link to a table that has all the other cases. Until Congress extends it again
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You are confusing copyright and trademarks. Disney holds several trademarks on Mickey Mouse and his likeness. Trademarks can be renewed forever.
The copyrights for Steamboat Willy are for the screenplay and the actual movie only. These copyrights should have run out long ago.
Even if "Steamboat Willy" becomes public domain people would still have to pay Disney to use Mickey Mouse.
You're wrong on both points. Actually characters can be copyrighted. (To learn more about copyright law, try the relevant Open Directory category.) Mickey Mouse is protected both by trademark and by copyright. Also, Steamboat Willie came out in 1928, so it's still under copyright protection in the U.S. The last date whose copyrights were ever allowed to expire was 1922. So far congress just keeps on renewing 1923+ copyrights, and shows every sign of intending to keep renewing them until the end of time.
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