Gus writes, “Remember carbon paper? You’re probably of a certain age if you can recall typing on a sandwich of two sheets of paper with a thin, grimy, black sheet between them to make copies.”
Hacker puppet Weena of The Media Show is too young to know what carbon paper is or what it was for. But when introduced to the concept of carbon copies, Weena has an insight: Is terrible copyright law an ancient worry about wasting a lot of paper?
Taking a break from answering the Internet’s questions about technology and media, this episode of The Media Show is part of a series of loopy improvised riffs. In them, we meet a retired advertising executive who calls himself King Arthur and holds court in the ad agency closet where Weena and Erna make the show.
The Media Show has previously covered copyright law by belching Happy Birthday (which, happily, is no longer subject to a fine) and talking with law professor James Grimmelmann about Star Trek fan edits.