tikatu | Orphan Works aftermath.

The controversy the Orphan Works business has died down quite a bit. The word is getting around that the legislation is: 1. non-existent at the moment since it's still being drafted in subcommittee; and 2. not at all what Mr. Simon went off the deep end about. Those who were flapping around the other day, like the chickens when you hit the "Panic!" button on the Chicken Run DVD, have stopped and gone about their business, though with perhaps an increased awareness that there is something out there to keep an eye on. Yet it seems that there are a lot of people still not convinced. They continue arguing that this is a real and present danger, as if they're still taking Simon's screed at face value. And it seems they're missing the point.

The point? Don't believe everything you hear on the internet. Do some research on your own first. Those emails promising you some of Bill Gates' s money if you forward it along? Take them with a big grain of Snopes. U.S Postal Service going to charge money for every email sent? CNN would be all over that like wasps on jam. A little girl dying and wanting postcards? Some of those could have been true, but have been around the world so many times that the now-recovered little girl is about to graduate from college. Google is your friend!

And if someone says there's this piece of legislation coming up and it's going to ruin life as we know it? Both the House and the Senate have websites, not to mention the sources like THOMAS. Go look for yourself!