Sonny Bono (of Sonny and Cher) died in 1998 after reportedly hitting a tree while skiing in California. Michael Kennedy was also killed by a rogue tree in Aspen just a year prior.
The Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA) or, the Sonny Bono act, or the Mickey Mouse Protection act was signed into law by Bill Clinton on October 27, 1998 shortly after Sen. Bono’s death. Every time Disney’s first copyright has come into danger of being public domain, the United States has extended this act.
Which is a shame for many reasons, but I only found out about this because I happen to enjoy the writings of Marcel Proust, which have been caught-up in this act. After his death, the first English translations of books 1-4/7 were published by Scott Moncrief who died translating them. Recently there was an updated translation I wanted to read but found out that books 4-7 aren’t available in the US because they had been translated and published AFTER Mickey Mouse had been copyrighted.
First, Walt Disney never really created ANYTHING. Disney stole the idea for “Oswald the Rabbit” from a guy who was selling plush Toys in a Chicago train station on his way to a meeting with a film studio. Mickey Mouse’s first appearance was in “Steamboat Willy” which itself was inspired by the “Ballad of Casey Jones” and folk song variations about a heroic train engineer who had died saving passengers on the same train line Disney took to get to meetings with film studios. The validity of original copyright application has been called into question many times itself.
Disney then went on to reclaim nearly all classic European children’s stories.
Then next time the Mickey Mouse copyright law is up for a vote is 2024, Trumps last year in office.
Recently having learned that the US doesn’t actually own any of its copyrights or patents, that Serco does, this all has yet another level of complexity to it.
Also Cher, she doesn’t like Trump.
Sorry, I had this whole thing beautifully sourced in essay from a few years ago, and just wanted to add-in the whole Serco aspect, but the essay and all my sources have been wiped from the internet since.