do you think their lawyers and lobbyists would somehow forget, and miss the opportunities to get in some billable hours?

From my understanding it was quietness that allowed lobbyists to pass the extension in 1998. I have been unable to find a great editorial I read a couple of years ago that detailed it, the only major resistance coming from a 1997 sized internet. I would hope a similar act with social media as it is today would be met with a much stronger resistance.

Although I agree with you that this visibility might backfire, but I believe the transparency is of higher value in such debates compared to strategical opaqueness.

> transparency is of higher value in such debates compared to strategical opaqueness

I want to put this on a plaque and hang it in every public office.

Fortunately there are very few corporations with an interest in fighting an expensive lobbying battle over works from 1923. There's substantial opposition to an extension, something lacking 20 years ago (when there was scant opposition, and the opposition that existed had few financial resources).

Google for example is against continuing to extend it. They have more financial resources than everyone on the other side combined. There is also meaningful public awareness, something almost entirely lacking just 20 years ago.

It's no longer a fight Disney can easily win.

IMHO the only thing stopping an extension is that next year is a mid-term election year and a lot of house members will be busy. I have zero doubt that this congress would not push back against a major corporation like Disney on a matter like this. The best hope for saving the public domain is general dysfunction on the hill. This is especially true if you get people like Lawrence Lessig in there arguing against extension, some members would vote for it just to stick it to him and all of his ivory tower leftist friends.

They always seem to find time for amending the copyright law, sometimes multiple times in the same year. A list of amendments is at https://www.copyright.gov/title17/92preface.html. I'm not sure what has happened since 2010 though, since there's only one change, in 2014.

In this day and age they'll fail. The only reason they succeeded with this garbage in the past was the fact that they did it mostly in the dark, hiding this from the public. Today they can't pull it off, but it of course doesn't mean we shouldn't pay attention.