Mickey Mouse is a harmless example. If we change the laws to let Disney have Mickey forever, we are also allowing companies to own forever something that could

Mickey Mouse is a harmless example. If we change the laws to let Disney have Mickey forever, we are also allowing companies to own forever something that could make people's lives better. It also presents another problem: one of the objectives of copyright is to reward innovation. If you created something new, it makes sense to let you profit from it for a time. But if you can profit from it forever, you have no reason to innovate more. Not innovating more goes against one of the objectives of copyright. It's also bad for the economy, for the people, for everyone. We need innovation.