Alice in Wonderland and the theft of the public domain

Disney's Alice in Wonderland (1951) won't enter the public domain until 2046, despite being based on Lewis Carroll's 1865 novel that was itself in the public domain when Disney adapted it. The post argues that modern copyright law — extended largely through Disney's lobbying — has transformed copyright from a system designed to incentivize creation into one of rent-seeking, robbing the public of its cultural heritage. Nearly all creators credited on the film are dead, yet the copyright persists for decades more, preventing anyone from building on the work.