You're confusing copyrights and trademarks. (Incidentally, IANAL
I used the wrong word but I was indeed talking about trademarks.
Further more, Kleenex and Xerox are still quite valid trademarks, although they are in danger of becoming public domain. Better examples of lost trademarks are "aspirin" and "escalator." This is why you read the occasional story of Disney threatening to sue a daycare center for using hand-made representations of their characters as decorations. They *have* to defend their trademarks.
..so much so, that they have to degrade Copyright law to do so. Disney is almost singlehandedly responsible for the ludicrous extension of copyright law every time it is about to expire. Every time Mickey Mouse is threatened with entering the public domain, massive lobbying ensues and we get another copyright extension... which is particularly hypocritical because much of Disney's blockbuster movies were adaptations of public domain published works!
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Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
World's largest electronic gaming project: http://www.MobyGames.com/
A delicious slice of the demoscene: http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/
Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/
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