[TAG] The Public Domain: Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

[Jimmy O'Regan]

"There is no doubt that piracy is an important problem?it's just not
the only problem. Our leaders have lost this sense of balance. They
have been seduced by a vision of culture that measures beauty in
ticket sales. They are apparently untroubled by a world where
cultivating the past requires the permission of the past. They can't
imagine that freedom could produce anything worthwhile at all.

The danger remains invisible to most, hidden by the zeal of a war on
piracy. And that is how the public domain may die a quiet death,
extinguished by self-righteous extremism, long before many even
recognize it is gone."