People, there will be no last minute change. Disney is evil, not stupid. Even in a more efficient Congress, they couldn’t wait this long. There is no secret plan that can sneak through another copyright extension. The House can barely elect a Speaker without it being a national embarrassment. They adjourned for the year leaving open questions for funding Ukraine and Israel. Disney also had a big fight with DeSantis this past year, and Republicans would love to block their effort merely out of spite.
Now, in that article, Doctorow did think they would extend copyright, anyway. That hasn’t happened. It looks like Disney looked at the fight over Net Neutrality and decided they didn’t need to spend the time, money, and public image to make it happen. The Internet wasn’t mobilized for this sort of thing in the 90s when they last extended copyright. That isn’t true anymore. They would have to have a fight, and they declined.
unlike how it was in the 90s, Disney no longer has support in the government not as much as it used to. Republicans dont like them because they went back on supporting the dont say gay bill. Also before Isaac Perlmutter was on the board of directors and he was in the inner circle of Trump and he recently got laid off. Corey is right that not only disney but other companies are starting to prefer trademark law to get what they want. Look at ERB Inc, Tarzan is public domain but they still have a lot of control and are the “official” estate for Tarzan stuff. They own all related trademarks.
I expect this will happen to Lord of the Rings. It goes public domain in about 20 years, which isn’t that far away. Same amount of time between now and that as there is between now and the Peter Jackson films.
The Tolkien estate might trademark the term “Lord of the Rings” and keep licensing things out. Fans could always come up with an alternate name, like “Silmarillion: War of the One Ring”, and we all know what it is.
thats what is done currently with tarzan, usually its like king of the jungle or lord of the trees which are titles tarzan gets in the books so its enough to let people know what it is without ERB Inc coming and knocking on your door with some lawyers
People, there will be no last minute change. Disney is evil, not stupid. Even in a more efficient Congress, they couldn’t wait this long. There is no secret plan that can sneak through another copyright extension. The House can barely elect a Speaker without it being a national embarrassment. They adjourned for the year leaving open questions for funding Ukraine and Israel. Disney also had a big fight with DeSantis this past year, and Republicans would love to block their effort merely out of spite.
I said five years ago that it was too late already. I was basing that off a 2016 Corey Doctorow article–the same guy who recently popularized the term “enshittification”–where he points out that Disney got what they want with Trademark law. They don’t need to protect Steamboat Willy anymore.
Now, in that article, Doctorow did think they would extend copyright, anyway. That hasn’t happened. It looks like Disney looked at the fight over Net Neutrality and decided they didn’t need to spend the time, money, and public image to make it happen. The Internet wasn’t mobilized for this sort of thing in the 90s when they last extended copyright. That isn’t true anymore. They would have to have a fight, and they declined.
unlike how it was in the 90s, Disney no longer has support in the government not as much as it used to. Republicans dont like them because they went back on supporting the dont say gay bill. Also before Isaac Perlmutter was on the board of directors and he was in the inner circle of Trump and he recently got laid off. Corey is right that not only disney but other companies are starting to prefer trademark law to get what they want. Look at ERB Inc, Tarzan is public domain but they still have a lot of control and are the “official” estate for Tarzan stuff. They own all related trademarks.
I expect this will happen to Lord of the Rings. It goes public domain in about 20 years, which isn’t that far away. Same amount of time between now and that as there is between now and the Peter Jackson films.
The Tolkien estate might trademark the term “Lord of the Rings” and keep licensing things out. Fans could always come up with an alternate name, like “Silmarillion: War of the One Ring”, and we all know what it is.
thats what is done currently with tarzan, usually its like king of the jungle or lord of the trees which are titles tarzan gets in the books so its enough to let people know what it is without ERB Inc coming and knocking on your door with some lawyers