Evidently I missed out on a wave of hysterical nonsense about copyright and “orphan works” from an animation columnist. At a time of vocational tumult for me, this sort of fustian tempts me to go to back to school to get a degree in intellectual property law (for the time being, I’ll leave that option to Nate). We can be thankful that Meredith Patterson dispelled the obfuscatory hyperbole — but honestly, when will creators wake up and come to terms with the reality that they only just recently obtained the far-reaching copyright extensions they now enjoy, that practically everything they do is copyrighted? That, in short, they’ve never had things better?
Someday, some one will file the lawsuit that breaks the back of common-nonsense over-reaching on copyright, and in response the Congress and courts will institute a regimen that permits fair use, that limits the duration of copyright for the sake of the commons, and that encourages creators to concentrate their efforts on lifetimes of productivity rather than on the possibility of riding a one-shot lottery ticket of fame to dreamlands of wealth. Someday, but not for too long, I expect.