![]() ![]() So if Congress is “under the thumb of the entertainment industry,” why didn’t Disney waltz into Washington, toss around a few Disney dollars and walk out with another 20 year extension?īecause, as I have pointed out previously, the whole “Mickey Mouse Protection Act” is a catchy phrase, and is a nice story. Well, as I pointed out in my previous blog post, Winnie the Pooh is just about as valuable a character as Mickey Mouse. and the families of George Gershwin and Oscar Hammerstein II…” 1 “Instead, it’s a pointer to the sheer absurdity of American copyright law, which long ago came under the thumb of the entertainment industry and distant heirs of artists determined to preserve what is essentially a windfall.Ĭopyright terms have been consistently extended not in the interests of the works’ creators, but for the benefit of corporate behemoths such as the Walt Disney Co. Typical of the cynical sniping about copyright terms is this, which came out right after Pooh went into the public domain: So now that the book “Winnie the Pooh” has entered the public domain, what is next for our beloved “bear of very little brain”?įirst off, let’s take a look at what didn’t happen. ![]() ![]() “Because I Just Found Out I’m a Trademark Too!” ![]()
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