1. You can’t copyright ideas, only expressions. Someone “stole your idea?” Too bad. Not only is that allowed, it’s the entire purpose of copyright law in the United States: to “promote the progress of the useful arts.” It exists to encourage the spread of ideas – not to lock them up.
2. It is correct that Lady and the Tramp would be public domain by now. It was created in 1955. At that time, copyright was ruled by the 1909 Copyright Act, which set copyright length to 28 years, with an optional 28 year renewal. It would have entered the public domain in 2011, had the terms not been extended.
3. Copyright is not “use it or lose it.” Trademarks work this way, copyright does not. Corporations could stop “being thugs” without losing one iota of their copyright protections, if they chose.
4. Copyright is not a “natural right,” like the right to property. It is a creature of statute, and may be granted or taken away by the public (represented by Congress) at will. As Thomas Jefferson put it: "Inventions then cannot, in nature, be a subject of property. Society may give an exclusive right to the profits arising from them, as an encouragement to men to pursue ideas which may produce utility, but this may or may not be done, according to the will and convenience of the society, without claim or complaint from anybody. "
5. Copyright infringement is not theft. This was decided conclusively in Dowling v. United States: “interference with copyright does not easily equate with theft, conversion, or fraud. The infringer of a copyright does not assume physical control over the copyright nor wholly deprive its owner of its use. Infringement implicates a more complex set of property interests than does run-of-the-mill theft, conversion, or fraud.” This is not to say it is legal, or even moral, but theft it is not. In fact, infringement is punished FAR worse than theft, especially nowadays.
Some misconceptions about copyright:
1. You can’t copyright ideas, only expressions. Someone “stole your idea?” Too bad. Not only is that allowed, it’s the entire purpose of copyright law in the United States: to “promote the progress of the useful arts.” It exists to encourage the spread of ideas – not to lock them up.
2. It is correct that Lady and the Tramp would be public domain by now. It was created in 1955. At that time, copyright was ruled by the 1909 Copyright Act, which set copyright length to 28 years, with an optional 28 year renewal. It would have entered the public domain in 2011, had the terms not been extended.
3. Copyright is not “use it or lose it.” Trademarks work this way, copyright does not. Corporations could stop “being thugs” without losing one iota of their copyright protections, if they chose.
4. Copyright is not a “natural right,” like the right to property. It is a creature of statute, and may be granted or taken away by the public (represented by Congress) at will. As Thomas Jefferson put it: "Inventions then cannot, in nature, be a subject of property. Society may give an exclusive right to the profits arising from them, as an encouragement to men to pursue ideas which may produce utility, but this may or may not be done, according to the will and convenience of the society, without claim or complaint from anybody. "
5. Copyright infringement is not theft. This was decided conclusively in Dowling v. United States: “interference with copyright does not easily equate with theft, conversion, or fraud. The infringer of a copyright does not assume physical control over the copyright nor wholly deprive its owner of its use. Infringement implicates a more complex set of property interests than does run-of-the-mill theft, conversion, or fraud.” This is not to say it is legal, or even moral, but theft it is not. In fact, infringement is punished FAR worse than theft, especially nowadays.
Hope that clears some things up!