Congress is conducting a review of America’s copyright laws, a process that could shape culture and creativity for a generation or more. While the process has so far focused on how to stop piracy, some are asking if Hollywood will try to extend copyright terms once again in order to prevent works like Mickey Mouse from falling into the public domain.

The question came up on the Volokh Conspiracy, a blog popular with legal types, where a law prof proposed starting a pool on whether Congress would extend copyright terms by another 20 years.

While the larger debate has been relatively quiet so far, it could flare up again as it did in the late 1990s when the last 20-year extension led to a bitter legal fight between scholars and librarians on one hand, and Hollywood and the music industry on the other. The entertainment industry ultimately prevailed at…