In a previous article, Who Framed Mickey Mouse, I argued that The Walt Disney Company’s role in copyright term extension in 1998 – although real and substantial – has been seriously exaggerated by opponents of copyright term extension.1 In this shorter piece I wanted to explicate on a related point, which is the degree to which the focus on the copyright status of Mickey Mouse has resulted in a copyright policy debate unusually focused on the copyright status of older works, especially a few high-profile ones like Walt Disney’s Steamboat Willie. Meanwhile, the actual copyright policy debates of 2025 are much more about compensating current creators – especially as it becomes harder and harder for ordinary creators to earn a living through commercialization of their work. In that way the focus on Mickey Mouse creates a useful smokescreen for those intermediaries (especially but not uniquely Alphabet, Inc., the corporate parent of Google and YouTube), which profit from ubiquitous and under licensed exploitation of the work of creators.