I don't recall writing that, though I agree with its broad outlines.

But yes, Disney and others who lobby Congress to extend copyrights beyond all reason have contributed to the problem of orphan works. Orphan works come about when, for example, copyright law extends protection of works whose authors are already dead.

Your comments suggest that you don't really have an idea of the scope of the problem or how it comes about. Every original work--not just entertainment--that is fixed in a tangible medium is copyrighted, automatically, and thus automatically protected for the life of the author plus 70 years. The level of protection for pre-1976 works is a little different, but still far out of scale with the problem copyright tries to solve--namely, providing a sufficient incentive to authors to ensure the flow of new creative works without placing unnecessary restrictions on free expression.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=orphan+works

(1) If you can't afford it, yes.
(2) If you can't find the person who has it to pay them, yes.

That (1) misses the point, which is that U.S. copyright law has become wholly uncoupled from the point of granting copyrights in the first place, and (2) isn't even true for a lot of works. Google "orphan works."

Happy to, Trollio. It's the other $80 for 90000 channels i dont watch that I object to.

I can't speak for anybody else, but I watched a bunch of educational programming when I was a kid. Yes, Sesame Street--but also Mr. Rogers, the Electric Company, and Square One spring immediately to mind. Oh, and I bet I could still whistle the theme to "Voyage of the Mimi." Maybe I'm not typical, but I think all of those shows were pretty valuable. Given the choice, I would probably STILL watch half an hour of Square One over half an hour of Survivor's Next Top Idol.

No, this is LEGO. You have to put the skids on yourself.

I can't speak for "the medical field," but better schools do indeed mean more job opportunities in the legal field. This is not to say that a JD from a top law school is the guaranteed job it was five or ten years ago--or that it's impossible to get a job if you didn't attend a prestigious school--but firms certainly do look at where you went to school as a primary indicator of your value and ability.

... 0 dead in mass stabbing.

Sure, nutjobs are the problem, but guns let nutjobs translate nutjob impulses into mass death with the press of a finger. And many of the same people who advocate free, easy access to guns are the same people who suggest that government funding for things like mental health assessments and treatment is a huge waste of taxpayer money and an invasion of personal liberty.

The logical outcome of that thinking, of course, is that as long as there continue to be more and more widely publicized shootings (this is the second this week, by the way--third if you count the guy who shot himself inside a federal courthouse during business hours yesterday), it becomes less and less possible ever to discuss the politically addressable contributing factors to those shootings.

On the other hand, I assume that's the effect you're going for.

Something that is bad for us in high doses may be beneficial in low doses?! Next they'll be telling us that exposure to radiation and toxins can help cure cancer, or that the same stuff that rusts away unprotected steel and iron is actually necessary for animal life!