4 ms·

Not to worry, copyright terms will be extended again long before "Steamboat Willy" expires. Disney has lots of friends in Washington. Nothing copyright after 19

• pluma 11y ago
  In case anybody else is wondering, Steamboat Willie currently will expire in 2023. If the timing of the previous copyright extension acts continues, we should see a new copyright extension act within the next three years or so. Assuming, of course, it isn't entirely coincidental that the copyright extension acts tend to pop up every time Steamboat Willie gets close to entering the public domain. I wonder how Steamboat Willie entering the public domain would affect the Mickey Mouse related trademarks (e.g. the mouse ears and such), considering that most of it is simply derived from the character first publicly introduced in that film. I know that trademark law is orthogonal to copyright, but it would certainly allow diluting the brand.