If copyright didn't always extend to cover all of Mickey Mouse's existence, would piracy be as popular?

I don't think most piracy is early Mickey Mouse cartoons; if the argument for piracy based on copyright length was sincere, I'd expect to see almost exclusively older works pirated, but that's not what's most popular on the torrents.

Oh for sure the setting has evolved plenty from the early days, but that inherent conflict of resource guarding vs access is what drives a lot piracy.

Other angles on the same continuum:

- You cannot pay a reasonable amount to a single provider and expect to watch the television shows your friends talk about.

- You cannot go back and re-watch your favorite television show on a streaming service where you originally watched it, as their catalog dropped it last year.