In fact, I have a feeling that he didn’t merely “ask” for permission after his 80th tatoo. He probably found out he could get in a lot of trouble for what he’d already done, and struck a deal.
I seriously doubt the copyright will end then, either. DIsney has a history of getting it extended.
The sound part of that thread was interesting. I took the time to figure out what the patented sounds would sound like. The AOL one is the sound used all the time on TV to indicate an instant message. And the Microsoft one sounds quite similar to the Intel one. I would think that both would have had to be defended.