Disney benefitted from a rich public domain as a consequence of copyright policies of the preceeding 200 years or so (Statute of Anne, precoursor of US copyright law, 1710).
It proceded to destroy the public domain as a result of its support of both ever-longer copyright duration, and more broadly scoped holders' rights, over the 20th century:
Under the 1909 act, in existence when "Steamboat Willy" was released in 1928, copyright's maximum term was 54 years (27 year initial, one renewal), and that required both registration and notice.
Today it's 95 years from creation.
Disney could not only use characters, but quote at will and length with no fear of infringement from any prior work which was not both registered and noticed, or any work whose initial 27 year term had lapsed, or, with no concerns at all, any work at all published prior to 1874.
Today's authors have none of these freedoms. Twenty-seven years ago was 1987. Fifty-four years ago was 1961. Neither of those are "free to use by" dates. Rather, any work published from 1923 onward may* be under copyright, and copyrights are routinely asserted on works first published long before then (most notoriously the song "Happy Birthday", whose first version was published in 1893). Its status is currently being litigated.
It proceded to destroy the public domain as a result of its support of both ever-longer copyright duration, and more broadly scoped holders' rights, over the 20th century:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2f/Copyrigh...
Under the 1909 act, in existence when "Steamboat Willy" was released in 1928, copyright's maximum term was 54 years (27 year initial, one renewal), and that required both registration and notice.
Today it's 95 years from creation.
Disney could not only use characters, but quote at will and length with no fear of infringement from any prior work which was not both registered and noticed, or any work whose initial 27 year term had lapsed, or, with no concerns at all, any work at all published prior to 1874.
Today's authors have none of these freedoms. Twenty-seven years ago was 1987. Fifty-four years ago was 1961. Neither of those are "free to use by" dates. Rather, any work published from 1923 onward may* be under copyright, and copyrights are routinely asserted on works first published long before then (most notoriously the song "Happy Birthday", whose first version was published in 1893). Its status is currently being litigated.
That is asymmetry of which I speak.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_law_of_the_United_St... http://www.snopes.com/music/songs/birthday.asp http://wfae.org/post/happy-birthday-hits-sour-notes-when-it-...