Nintendo's SNES Classic Edition Arrives September 29 For $80

[dstarr3]

Currently, I think the law is that copyright expires 75 years after the death of the author/owner. Anyway, the law changes every time Mickey Mouse is in danger of entering public domain, then the Disney lawyers swoop in and change the law to extend the duration of copyright to prevent that from happening.

In any event, the medium of video games itself isn't old enough for any copyrights to have expired, so copyright is not a defense.

 

[cryoburner]

Currently, I think the law is that copyright expires 75 years after the death of the author/owner.

That only applies to works made by an individual though. For a game developed by a company, the life of an individual doesn't play a role, so it's 75 years after the date first published. But yes, that won't apply to any video games for quite a while still, and in the case of Starfox 2, it's not even getting published until later this year. : P

As for Mickey, he's already nearly 90 years old, and has had an extension protecting him for at least 95 years. Even if he entered the public domain though, his design and his name are thoroughly covered by trademarks, which follow different rules, so people wouldn't be able to legally use him in their own works anyway.