In my opinion, there should be different terms for different copyright rights. The exclusive rights to make and distribute copies should be relatively, so after a reasonable time people should be able to make and distribute copies of Mickey Mouse cartoons, movies, comics, and so on.
However, the right to make derivative works should last longer, especially for characters. A good author makes a character seem like someone real to the reader or viewer. He establishes a personality for that character, and I don't have a problem with not allowing others to make stories with that character that are inconsistent with the personality established by the original author.
I don't seem to feel the same way that most people do on this issue. Why is it so bad that the corporation that owns the rights to Mickey Mouse, and still uses "him" to make money, retains the rights to that character? Why should it be our right to make money off it as well?
Disney has made a fortune modernizing classic fairy tales. The reason that such tales have lasted so long in our shared culture is that people have been free to evolve them into their own works. Who gave Disney permission to create stories based on the Brothers Grimm or Arabian Nights?
Imagine a culture years from now, where every piece of culture has been locked down by a corporation. What kind of stagnation would exist? Would only the authorized storytellers be allowed to participate in authorized creation?
Disney is fighting to extend copyright perpetually. They want to be making money from Mickey Mouse a 1000 years from now. The original artists will be long gone, but no one will be able to build upon Mickey as Disney has built upon ancient tales.
Read some Cory Doctorow for a better explanation of this. Makers is especially good.
Your examples of stories they derived movies from were in the public domain specifically because their creators were dead and no corporation owned the rights to them. So what if they are still making money off of something they are actively using? You actually believe our culutre is negatively affected by this? I bet you would't feel the same way if you were forced to relinquish your own wildly successful IP due to some span of time elapsing. That whole bit about a future where all parts of our culture are "locked down" by corporations is utter nonsense.
That's my point though. Society shouldn't own IP just because it is old and we got used to it. We should protect the IP's rightful owners until the rightful owners are gone from this Earth. You're acting as if you're defending our children's children's children by wanting Mickey Mouse forced into the public domain. This isn't a matter of 'evil megacorps' robbing our children of something precious.
Because copyrights exist to creste an incentive for the production of cultural goods. If Disney can milk their cows forever, there will be little incentive to produce new cows.
This monopoly on such cultural goods prevents the creation of derivedworks and reduce the value to the population of these goods.
They can have their copyright, but for a reasonable time.
Don't you have that backwards? If I wish to make cartoons and use an anthropomorphic mouse, I have more incentive to create a new character so that I can avoid having to license Mickey. If Mickey were public domain, I'd have less incentive to create a new character, as I could just use Mickey.
In fact, I might have incentive to specifically avoid creating a new character, because Mickey has recognition.
What if Disney finds the character resembles too much a copyrighted character?
If we plan on extending copyright forever, we will end up with a pretty crowded characterspace in a couple decades. Are you sure you'll be able to come up with something that's completely original a couple decades from now? Is it sane?
Disney isn't the only producer of "cows." If Disney wants to use it forever, let them. It would not stop anyone else from coming up with something original. Owning the rights to Mickey Mouse for so long hasn't even stopped them from producing new works all this time.
