What I’m Blogging

It was on this day in 1790 that Congress enacted the United States copyright law. The law gave authors exclusive rights to publish and sell maps, charts and books for a period of fourteen years, with a chance to renew the copyright for another fourteen years. There have been many changes to the U.S. copyright law since 1790. In the nineteenth century, copyrights became available for photographs, paintings, drawings and models. In 1909, musical rolls for player pianos became covered by the law. In the last thirty years, copyright law has expanded to include cable TV, computer software, tapes, CDs, DVDs, and, most recently, MP3s.

…Disney’s famous characters were scheduled to enter the public domain between 2000 and 2004…

Copyright terms have also gradually gotten longer. Up until 1998, copyrights lasted for the life of the author plus an additional fifty years before they went into the public domain. But in that year, the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act extended the duration of copyrights by twenty years. The act was supported by a group of large corporations, led by Disney. Most of Disney’s famous characters were scheduled to enter the public domain between 2000 and 2004, but now other artists and companies won’t be able to use them in their books and movies and songs until at least 2019—which means that Disney has another thirteen years of making money off Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy and all the rest.

My yard has been overrun by some swingers of the canard set. At first it was cute, “Oh look! there are ducks in the pool!” Now, not so much. The original ducks, a male and female pair, were fine, however, in the hormone driven season of duck lust, things are getting out of hand.

…only the noise of horny ducks and hungry dogs…

Apparently, female ducks are a rather rare commodity. It’s either that or this particular webfooted avian is of low morale character and invites strange males home. The mornings are routinely started with five or six of the mallards jockeying for the most advantageous position [nudge, nudge, wink, wink, Say no more]. Of course the original male is duty bound to defend her honour, so the resulting din of quacks, honks and the flapping of wings is enough to wake the dead. Well if not the dead, then at least the three sleeping canines, who want nothing more than to test their culinary skills on the wayward waterfowl. The dogs charge outside and mayhem ensues. Ducks in the pool, ducks in the air, dogs on the ground barking, their compatriots from several houses away joining in the hue and cry.

So there is no morning peace, no leisurely blissful repose in the wee hours of the dawn. There is only the noise of horny ducks and hungry dogs.