I remember saying this in the 90's and the response was almost universally dismissal as an anti-corporate nonsense. I think more people are connecting the dots themselves now. I hope something changes to loosen their stranglehold but money continues to talk.

Are SnowWhite and other classic fairytale characters really exclusive intellectual property of Disney?
That doesn't make much sense… it would make sense if they said that their intellectual property is about their interpretation of the tale and of the character (i.e.: their drawing of Snow White, of the dwarves, etc., the songs of the movie, etc.), but the story as a whole can't be their intellectual proprerty. Copyright on those fairytales has expired 70 years after their authors' death, which happened long ago, so Disney, if I'm correct, didn't pay a dime on the rights to make their movies. So, techincally, they don't have the intellectual property of the tale, they just have the i.p. of their interpretation of it.