Walt Disney vs The Public Domain

Now, Uncle Walt! Close the gate! Don't let them get to me!

Walt Disney. Once a man. Long since dead.

Walt Disney certainly understood the power of the public domain. While he certainly invented some great characters, he didn't  burn the midnight oil trying to figure out what his next movie he was going to be about.

Even after his death, his company continued to, unashamedly(because indeed, some today consider it a shame to work on public domain characters, perhaps more as a result of public domain becoming synonimous with "stuff from over 70 years ago.") plunder the public domain. I'll try to get them all, here.

Snow White

Sleeping Beauty

Sleeping Beauty 2

Maleficent

The Jungle Book

Robin Hood

The Sword and the Stone.

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

The Sorcerer's Apprentice(live action)

Cinderella

Ahem-hem!

Cinderella 2


Mulan

Mulan 2

Beauty and The Beast

Beauty and the Beast Enchanted Christmas

Aladdin

Aladdin, the Animated Series

Aladdin The Return of Jafar

Aladdin and the 40 Thieves

A Christmas Carol

And they made a whole series about how Scrooge's greed was actually A GOOD THING!

The Little Mermaid

THe LIttle Mermaid 2

The LIttle Mermaid the TV series

Hercules

Hercules The Animated Series

Peter Pan

Peter Pan Return to Neverland

Alice in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland

You know...this one?

Tarzan

Tarzan The Series

The Jungle Book

The Jungle Book

You know...This one?

Tale Spin

John Carter(but stupidly, they paid to use it)

The Hunchback of Notre Dam

The Hunchback of Notre Dam 2

Treasure Planet

The Princess and the Frog

Frozen

So Disney loves the public domain...as a source for stories. Because when the time comes for Disney to GIVE to the Public Domain, funny things start to happen to copyright law. Disney Lobbies for it's durations to get stretched.

But it's weird, because THEY are in the best of positions to benefit from a growing public domain. Disney's hoarding Mickey Mouse because it gives them bajillions of dollars in merchandising. But they're denying themselves working on Lord of the Rings, Superman, I Robot, and King Kong. They are already in possession of dominant forces in every brand of entertainment, from comics to movies to tv show to books. It's stupid that they, having all these advantages, don't see now that they are keeping themselves from more than they are maintaining.

Sure, they can throw money around to BUY what they don't own. That's their advantage over everyone in pretty much every respect. Perhaps they'd eventually enjoy owning every  popular copyrighted work of the 20th century, and have everyone have to license the rights from THEM. I wouldn't put it past the people who tried to trademark "Dia De los Muertos", "Snow White" and "Seal Team 6". Do you have the money to license the rights to Star Wars from  them? Let me know, by commenting below, or maybe sending me 30 million dollars to my paypal  ...I gots kids to feed, man!) .