This link may not work if you don't have a login to the New York Times Website: Lawrence Lessig, who tried to get the copyright extension revoked, has proposed an interesting compromise between the two sides of the debate. Basically, after a reasonable amount of time (Lessig uses 50 years as an example), copyright holders ought to pay a "patent tax" to keep hold of the copyright on their work. At the moment, holders of patents have to pay a fee every few years to maintain the patent. Lessig suggests that the same idea could be applied to copyrights. It would allow works that are no longer commercially viable to enter the public domain when the copyright holders no longer pay the tax, yet allow corporations and creators to keep hold of their most valuable works. In addition, because the tax would have to be paid, the copyright holder would be on record, so it wouldn't be difficult to find who owns the copyright to a protected work. Seems like a decent compromise... so it'll never come to pass.
Neilalien once again has some fantastic links (that I finally had time to check out). I'm particularly pleased with John Parker's "My Superman T-Shirt" essay, which had the effect of making me proud to be a superhero fan. Not that I wasn't already. See, I like lots of non-superhero books. I read a great many comic books, and not all of them are superhero. And I just happen to agree with Parker that superheroes are every bit as valid as other comic books. Nothing annoys me quite as much as a comic book snob who turns up his/her nose at superheroes because they just happen to currently dominate the medium. Yes, we know superheroes aren't the be-all and end-all of comic books. But some of us do like them, and there is nothing wrong with that.
Tomorrow is my birthday. I was convinced when I was little that I would never live to see my 30th birthday. I don't know why. It wasn't like anyone around me was dying. My parents are both still alive today. But for some reason, I just didn't think I'd make it to 30. Well, I already have, and I'm past it... but it still sometimes feels unreal. Like this is just a dream that young me is having, and that I still don't stand a chance of getting there. So I don't see my birthday as a reminder of mortality. I see it as me having beat the odds another year. I see it as me continuing past where I thought I would stop. It's very strange. And somewhat comforting. I like birthdays.
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