The Public Domain

 This summer, I ordered a copy of Mental Acts: Their Content and Their Object by Peter Geach. I was mildly surprised to find that it was a reproduction of the edition published by Routledge, Kegan, and Paul. The back cover said, among other things, that

This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.

I find it odd that the writings of philosophers should somehow reach the public domain so quickly, when Disney's "Steamboat Willy" only made it into the public domain this year. I have made the same complaint of a copied edition of Quine's Word and Object. Disney died in 1966, Quine in 2000, Geach in 2013. Yet somehow Disney' works of the 1930s remain protected, while Quine's and Geach's works of the 1950s and 1960s are not.

The copy of Mental Acts also suggests objections to the attitude of those who think that quick entry to the public domain is wholly beneficial. This week I looked into the book to find its date of publication. The publishers had included a page with a little bit of library information from Osmania University, which must once have owned the copy scanned. But they had omitted whatever portion of the front matter included the publication date. The best I could do from the book was to establish a terminus a quo of 1953, the year of the last-cited publications. Wikipedia says that it appeared in 1957.

At the DMV

 Last Monday, I discovered that my driver's license had expired on my birthday, roughly three weeks ago. It was not practical for me to go to the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) during the week, because of the press of business.The DMV offices keep barbers' days, Tuesday through Saturday, and I decided on Saturday.

On Saturday, I considered taking the bus, given my unlicensed state. But Georgetown is within fifteen minutes by car, and could take an hour and half to reach by bus on a Saturday. I drove, which was prudent. I left a book behind, which may not have been.

An hour and ten minutes elapsed between my arrival at the reception desk and my exit with a temporary license. A book might have helped to occupy me, or might have been impossible to read, given the unceasing sound track that posted one on almost anything one might need to know about the DMV.

This office is in a small shopping mall, with a restaurant or two. The woman next to me agreed that the mall should get permission for its shops to display the readout showing the state of the queues for service. I could see the numbers for a driver's license paid for by credit card creep up from C134 to C147 (my number). Had the readout been visible in the shops or restaurants, I could have browsed the displays or sipped coffee until C144 was called.

I find that for my next license, when I will be (well) over seventy, I will need to find a physician to certify that I am sound of mind and body. The DMV calls this the "mature driver" portion of the form. I hope that I reached maturity as a driver some time ago, but it has never been certified.

(During the last few years, people have started to use the term "DMV" as designating the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia. After so many years of using for a Department of Motor Vehicles--not just DC's, but Maryland's, I find this disconcerting.)