At least, that's what will happen if Congress doesn't retroactively change copyright law to prevent it—as Congress has done two previous times.
To our surprise, there seemed to be universal agreement that another copyright extension was unlikely to be on the agenda this year.
Presumably, many of the MPAA's members would gladly take a longer copyright term if they could get it.
For example, Disney's copyright for the first Mickey Mouse film, Steamboat Willie, is scheduled to expire in 2024.
I talked to Dennis Karjala, a law professor who was part of the lonely opposition to longer copyright terms in the 1990s.
Major movie studios joined forces with the estates of famous authors and musicians to push for a copyright extension.
In my 2013 article, I wrote that "the question for the coming legislative battle on copyright is who will prevail." »
