ZuzuFain

Follow-up question: How can Disney force the entire US law to be changed just to benefit their own characters? Why can't, for example, Disney renew their copyright on just Mickey Mouse and related Disney productions without changing the entire US law, so that Disney still has their copyright but some other material produced the same year by another company can go in the public domain if not renewed?

I hope this makes sense - my understanding was that Disney effectively lobbied to change the law for everyone rather than only renewing their own copyrights.

I don't see how it would be special treatment if one company actively pursues renewing its trademarks/copyrights while another company neglects to do so for their properties and allows them to enter the public domain. I assume the law is written in a way that forces everyone's trademarks to enter public domain regardless of the company's renewal of them? It just seems weird to me that one company can't pursue maintaining their own copyrights without forcing every other company to do the same.

Does that mean that basically everything that comes out after Mickey Mouse did will never enter the public domain as long as Disney keeps changing the law?

(I'm also using copyright and trademark interchangeably, but I'm aware that the two are different things)