Private: "In Search of Lost Copyright"

ACS' University of Missouri student chapter posted useful summary of issues surrounding the so-called "Mickey Mouse" laws at its blog:

Save for stylish mustaches, Walt Disney and Marcel Proust probably had very little in common. That is, until the enactment of the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998, a.k.a. the "Mickey Mouse Protection Act." Before the act, copyright of a work would last for the life of the author plus 50 years, or 75 years for a work by a corporation. The act, authored by the late Congressman Sonny Bono, extended these terms to life of the author plus 70 years and 95 years respectively. The Walt Disney Corporation lobbied heavily for the extension in order to prevent early Mickey Mouse cartoons such as "Steamboat Willie" from entering the public domain.

In practice, the Extension Act had some odd effects. In the late 90's, Penguin books commisioned a new English translation of Proust's seven-volume In Search of Lost Time. The new translations of the volumes are considered far superior to the previous 1920's translation. (In fact, the original translation called Proust's masterpiece "Remembrance of Things Past." Even the new translated title was subtly yet materially different in its meaning.) Unfortunately, getting hold of all seven of the new translated volumes can be a little difficult for American readers:

Bono's legislation effectively froze the date at which works go into the public domain at 1923, instead of marching forward twelve months with each passing year. In Search of Lost Time was caught in this web, because only the first four volumes were published before 1923. The Prisoner, The Fugitive, and Finding Time Again are still protected under U.S. copyright law, so Viking can't publish them, even though the British paperbacks are freely imported into this country.