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o11c · 3184 days ago · link · · parent · post: Filmmakers fighting “Happy Birthday” copyright find their “smoking gun”
You think that's bad, remember that in some countries, there are eternal copyrights.
The US is de facto one of those countries as Congress keeps extending copyrights for media corporations. Under the original copyright laws before they were amended in the 1990s Steamboat Willie, if not Mickey Mouse, would be in the public domain or entering it soon. I was talking to a friend one time about how even after society collapses, a thousand years from now there will always be Batman stories and I joked, "And Time Warner will still own the copyright." He shot back with, "Yes, by extending it in seven year increments." That's pretty much what Congress is doing for the media lobbyists.