response 60 of 80:

May 18 19:23 UTC 2005

Re resp:55 - The thing is that "Snow White", "Hunchback of Notre Dame",
and "Sleeping Beauty" *are* "specific stories".  The Disney corporation
has drawn deeply from the public domain well but doesn't seem to want to
give anything back, ever.  I doubt that's what the framers of the
Constitution had in mind when they specified that copyrights should be
for a "limited time".

I can paint the same landscapes that Van Gogh painted, in exactly the
way he did them (to the extent that my ability allows), and sell them,
as long as I don't try to pass them off as genuine Van Goghs.  Why
shouldn't I be allowed to do that with Mickey Mouse, eventually?

As McNally pointed out earlier, the Disney Corporation that has a lock
on Mickey Mouse bears little correspondence to the geniuses that created
the Mickey Mouse character:  Walt Disney, Ub Iwerks, Floyd Gottfredson,
and a handful of others.  (Most folks have heard of Walt Disney, but the
other two are not as well known...)