There's actually a new Woody Woodpecker movie releasing on DVD next month. It was #1 at the box office in Brazil back in October. The movie sounds like it had a troubled development, and they've scaled back their plans for it, but clearly Universal Studios is still trying to work with that character.
The earliest Woody Woodpecker clips won't enter the public domain util 2035.
The Shadow debuted in 1930, so it is also not yet in the public domain, but was also in a movie as recently as 1994, and it still appearing in licensed comics in 2015 and ongoing.
Some Tom Swift books have entered the public domain, but not all, and the character is still covered under trademark law also.
You're making a great point about how copyright is too long, leaving characters to languish, but none of your examples are actually in the public domain.
Disney could tell you about all the competitors whose works have all languished in the public domain and have been forgotten where they survived. I don't see people making new Tom Swift movies, falling in love with The Shadow, or a massive Woody Woodpecker revival, for example.
People focus on the biggest of the big as if that solves anything.
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There's actually a new Woody Woodpecker movie releasing on DVD next month. It was #1 at the box office in Brazil back in October. The movie sounds like it had a troubled development, and they've scaled back their plans for it, but clearly Universal Studios is still trying to work with that character.
The earliest Woody Woodpecker clips won't enter the public domain util 2035.
The Shadow debuted in 1930, so it is also not yet in the public domain, but was also in a movie as recently as 1994, and it still appearing in licensed comics in 2015 and ongoing.
Some Tom Swift books have entered the public domain, but not all, and the character is still covered under trademark law also.
You're making a great point about how copyright is too long, leaving characters to languish, but none of your examples are actually in the public domain.
Disney could tell you about all the competitors whose works have all languished in the public domain and have been forgotten where they survived. I don't see people making new Tom Swift movies, falling in love with The Shadow, or a massive Woody Woodpecker revival, for example.
People focus on the biggest of the big as if that solves anything.