I think the fan edit is way better. First of all, the red lips add some much needed contrast to her face. The original makes her all green except for her eyes, which are mostly white and black. The red helps make the green appear more significant and distinct. I think they should change the background too for the same reason.
Hiding the eyes does dehumanize her, but that’s a good thing here. It makes her look sinister, and ascribes some character to her. The smile also helps. Her expression is so blank in the original that you can’t get any idea of what this character is. The fan edit tells a story, where the original is just a person.
That’s not how copyright works (at least not in the US). when a corporation creates a copyrighted work (by way of paying the person(s) that actually made it), the duration is set as 120 years after creation or 95 years after publication. The lifetime of any employee is not taken into account. When a copyright is made by a person, it lasts until 70 years after that person dies. You cannot swap out that person for someone else, even if the owner of the copyright changes.
You are probably thinking of a method that is used to make private agreements last basically forever. A private contract technically isn’t allowed to last forever, there has to be some point of expiration. To make a contract last forever anyway, they pick some condition that probably won’t happen for a ridiculous amount of time, such as when the last descendant of the king of England dies (I assume they use this because the royal family keeps good genealogy records). If a currently living person is required, they might pick some infant relative to make it last as long as possible.