text: what percentage of the world's copyrights are still controlled by their original creators?   well they used to only be 25 years from the date copywritten, but disney changed that in 1992 with the extension of copyrights to 100 years instead. i found that odd since disney inc. made most of they movies based on works that had expired copyrights. ever noticed that. but the copyrights are actually usually owned by the publishers who commissioned the writers. only a few writers actually own there own works. i know that since i tried to be a writer, and when the first checks came i thought they were a bit short, but the publishers lawyers explained it all to me. but the persentage is about 30%-45% who still have there works controlled by them.