Mickey Mouse vs. the Public Domain

American copyright law can be a tricky thing. Originally, it was not quite as bad: when a work entered the public domain was a fixed term based on its first publication. In 1978, it was extended to fifty years past the life of the author, and in 1998, to 70 years past the life of the author (Karjala, 2015). Works that should have passed into the public domain this year, such as Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind, are instead remaining under copyright until at least 2019. I say at least because there is one very influential company who will fight to extend copyright yet again: Disney.

While the 1978 copyright extension happened so that the US could join the Berne Convention, the 1998 extension happened because of corporate lobbying (Karjala, 2015). Disney and the Gershwin Family Trust lobbied to keep the profitable creations they owned under copyright: for Disney, Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh; for the Gershwin Family Trust, the music of George Gershwin (Karjala, 2015). Karjala (2015) argues that the extension was not made for the benefit of the general public or the artists — rather, it was made to benefit influential corporations with the most money.

The disappearance of the public domain in the US is worrying. By not allowing works to enter the public domain, it can be argued that creativity is stifled — many of Disney’s successful animated movies are adaptations of works in the public domain, for example (Karjala, 2015). Karjala (2015) also discusses the wheel: if the wheel had been under copyright, innovation off of it would have been greatly slowed, as only those who could afford to purchase a license would have been able to work with it. While all artists and creators deserve payment for their work, one has to wonder what need they have for such payment if they have been dead for fifty years. It also becomes a little ridiculous when one considers that many of the works trapped under copyright in the US are in the public domain almost everywhere else in the world. Ultimately, organizations like Disney and the Gershwin Family Trust may be able to alter copyright to such a degree that it affects the creation of new works.

References:

Karjala, D. (2015). Why isn’t Batman in the public domain? Newsweek. Retrieved from http://www.newsweek.com/why-isnt-batman-public-domain-307981