Once something enters the public domain, it's free for anybody to use. Which means, there's nothing stopping any company now from making a Cinderella or Snow White movie and profiting from it.
However, I do agree that Disney is one of, if not the, biggest abuser of intellectual property rights. The general rule is that as soon as Mickey Mouse is about to enter the public domain, Disney hires dozens of lobbyists to get the copyright period extended-- and usually has no problem, since the general public doesn't understand copyright law or why extending it is bad. (Last time they got it passed, they played on the death of Sonny Bono: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonny_Bono_Copyright_Term_Extension_Act . Disgusting.)
And despite all their noise about the importance of respecting copyright laws, they seemed to have no problems at all completely ripping-off Kimba the White Lion: http://www.kimbawlion.com/rant2.htm
So... yeah.
Despite that, they throw a lot of work to my company for brands like ABC and ESPN and Disney Parks, so that's good.