Re: the poor authors! they'll starve!
"Disney didn't own the Copyright to the character"
I believe that a character would be covered under Trademark rather than Copyright. A Trademark can live as long as it's in trade with some buffer. Otherwise the hero in any story would be subject to litigation. "Apple" couldn't Trademark the word "apple" so the official Trademark started out as "Apple Computer". I could start a business cleaning carpets and call myself Apple Carpet Cleaning with people just calling me "Apple" and there would nothing they could do about it. There would be no confusion between the two businesses as they do different things. If I started a company making "connected" appliances and called it Apple XXXXX, they could get a court to make me cease using the name. Thomas Dolby (Robertson), from Wikipedia:
"Dolby Laboratories expressed concern regarding the musician's stage name. Dolby's record label refused to make him change his name, and Dolby Labs did not raise the issue again until later. After a lengthy legal battle, the court decided that Dolby Labs had no right to restrict the musician from using the name. It was agreed that the musician would not release any electronic equipment using the name"
So even names are up in the air.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
