I have two questions, how can a company like Disney own fairytales that they stole from folklore, doesn’t that fall under fair use or public domain?
Also, how does Disney still own copyright for their characters pass the 50 year copyright statue of limitation?
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Disney doesn’t own the copyright to the fairy tale characters themselves; they own the copyrights to their versions of the characters. I can write my own Cinderella story today, for example, but I couldn’t use the image or specific characteristics of Disney’s Cinderella or the other characters, I couldn’t use any of their songs, and I probably couldn’t use plot elements that they introduced which weren’t in the original (like, for example, the adorable talking mice).
All they own is their *interpretation.* Don’t get me wrong, Disney is famous for aggressively defending their copyrights and I wouldn’t be surprised if they challenged someone using Cinderella (or whatever story), based on a couple of similarities that they can base a case on, simply because they have a lot of money and resources to fight with. But in theory, they don’t own the rights to many of the original stories, whose characters would be public domain so long as you can prove that they bear no extra similarities to the Disney versions.
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