If you google around, you'll see Mickey Mouse is literally the foundation for most of our copyright law.
I hear this a fair bit from American sources, and I don't doubt that Disney has been a big proponent of longer copyright terms. But the foundation? The Berne Convention set an international standard for copyright terms at "life plus 50 years" in 1886. You can't claim Hollywood was behind 19th century law, can you? I'm sure Disney and other studios were happy to import that standard to the U.S., but it seems hard to claim that the idea of lengthier copyright was created by the American entertainment industry, don't you think?
Thanks for the AMA. Always interesting and engaging.
Absenteeist14 karma
Hi Ryan,
I hear this a fair bit from American sources, and I don't doubt that Disney has been a big proponent of longer copyright terms. But the foundation? The Berne Convention set an international standard for copyright terms at "life plus 50 years" in 1886. You can't claim Hollywood was behind 19th century law, can you? I'm sure Disney and other studios were happy to import that standard to the U.S., but it seems hard to claim that the idea of lengthier copyright was created by the American entertainment industry, don't you think?
Thanks for the AMA. Always interesting and engaging.
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