Add this to the fact that the U.S. legislature is considering making copyrights potentially infinite(edit: infinitely extendable) in length, and you have a recipe for total disaster.
They can't make copyrights infinite. But the last several decades have shown that they can extend copyright terms indefinitely. And, thanks to Disney's lobbying, will do so every time that it looks like Steamboat Willie is going to become public domain. (That's the first film that Mickey Mouse was in.)