Re:What a case (Score 5, Insightful)

The problem with Disney's views is that they're shortsighted- even for Disney. As people have routinely pointed out, Disney has been very aggressive about using public domain as a source for its works- i.e. Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, etc. That means that they could probably profit more than anyone else if the public domain was expanded. Yes, they'd lose the rights to Steamboat Willy, but how much money are they actually making from that? OTOH, Winnie the Pooh would be out of copyright pretty soon, so they wouldn't have to pay royalties to A.A. Milne's heirs for the use of Pooh. How many great movies could be made based on the works of Faulkner, Hemmingway, and the like that are currently being kept under copyright by the term extensions? How great would it be to be able to use Gershwin's music as a background score without having to pay his heirs for it? Why can't Disney see the advantages to them of being able to take advantage of the new works that would be going into the public domain?