According to Ananova, someone recently noticed that Mickey Mouse makes a cameo in a 700-year-old church fresco. What's a mega-multimedia conglomerate like the The Walt Disney Company to do?

Click the link above to Disney's coporate information site, and you'll see the following quote by Walt Disney, "I only hope that we don't lose sight of one thing - that it was all started by a mouse."

As proponents of the constitutional challenge of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, Eldred v. Ashcroft, are painfully aware, Disney has not lost sight of this fact. It's arguable that Disney spearheaded the lobbying effort for the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act primarily to prevent Steamboat Willie, one of Mickey's first onscreen appearances, from slipping into the public domain.

It would be glorious poetic justice if this fresco pushed Mickey into the public domain. Of course, Disney would sooner buy the Catholic Chruch than allow this to happen. Come to think of it, this could be incredibly lucrative. Think of the crossover marketing possibilities: papal mouse hats!