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Sci-Fi

First Few Doctor Who Episodes May Fall To Public Domain Next Year 216

First time accepted submitter wmr89502270 writes "Doctor Who is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. The special The Day of The Doctor will be broadcast simultaneously in over 75 countries and hundreds of cinemas in the UK. Across the world the hotly anticipated special episode will be screened simultaneously in full 3D. According to Copyright law of the United Kingdom, the copyright in a broadcast program expires 50 years from the end of the year in which it is broadcast, which means the first episodes will fall to public domain next year."
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First Few Doctor Who Episodes May Fall To Public Domain Next Year

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  • by Lirodon ( 2847623 ) on Thursday October 03, 2013 @11:29PM (#45032795)
    It probably won't hit PD in America until 3025. Like any other cultural work.
    • by AK Marc ( 707885 ) on Thursday October 03, 2013 @11:49PM (#45032855)
      I don't know why it was modded troll. If the work was originally copyrighted in the UK with a 50 year copyright, why can't the US distributor claim 75+ years on the US copyright? If it's PD in UK, why would that require it to be PD in the US? Didn't Amazon get in trouble with Australian 1984, PD in Australia, but not the US? That indicates to me that the US rules are in effect for the US, even if the work was copyrighted outside the US.
      • by girlintraining ( 1395911 ) on Friday October 04, 2013 @01:32AM (#45033219)

        That indicates to me that the US rules are in effect for the US, even if the work was copyrighted outside the US.

        That is, more or less, how the law operates. Now when I say more or less, the devil's in the details. There are numerous treaties covering cross-country patents, copyrights, trademarks, etc., so filing in one country extends similar protections simultaniously to all the other signatories... but the implimentation of treaty terms can vary from one country to another, as can the interpretations of some provisions. In Japan, for example, you can patent something that is in every detail identical to your competitor except it's a slightly different shade of muave and it qualifies as a unique work. But that doesn't mean you won't get sued in the United States for patent infringement if you try to market it. The laws are a patchwork of often conflicting and vague tombs of treaties, federal, state, and local law. Hell, California routinely tries to supercede federal authority; Pick up a canister of oxygen sometime "This product is known to cause cancer in the state of california." But nowhere else, apparently. Anyone who wants to sell their product in California has to do business by their funktastic and horribly deranged environmental regulations... and the EPA has been forced to write new legislation specifically to say "... We only have to make a new law about this because California rode the short bus on this stuff. Again."

        • by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Friday October 04, 2013 @07:00AM (#45034283) Homepage Journal

          and the EPA has been forced to write new legislation specifically to say "... We only have to make a new law about this because California rode the short bus on this stuff. Again.

          Too bad you have that entirely backwards. We had shit for emissions standards in this country until California made a big noise about it. If you like breathing, thank California. Also thank California for acting as the trial for these problems. Los Angeles proved what happens if you don't have a strong EPA; things like children with bleeding lesions on their lungs simply from breathing the air happen. As well, the federal government prevented The People of California from implementing only in our state the automotive emissions restrictions for which we actually voted because it would do harm to their future bailout poster children. The truth is that only California is serious about environmental protection, and the rest of you just want to rape the land and shit in your neighbor's mouths through the air.

          • Can't tell if troll.

            There is a big difference between air quality standards and "WARNING: This jetway contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer" signs.

            • by jedidiah ( 1196 ) on Friday October 04, 2013 @09:11AM (#45035273) Homepage

              It takes a lot to balance out all of the hypocrites that want to treat out planet like a toilet while pretending they defend the values of the Boy Scouts.

            • by mcgrew ( 92797 ) * on Friday October 04, 2013 @12:03PM (#45037209) Homepage Journal

              Can't tell if troll.

              He's a freak but he's no troll, and I can't for the life of me figure out why you think he's trolling. Maybe you're only 20 and have never seen pollution? I grew up two miles south of a Monsanto plant. This was back before the EPA and car AC. Even if it was 100 degrees F you had to roll your windows up when driving past because the air would literally burn your lungs; breathing was painful. Rivers and streams caught fire.

              Even after the Clean Air Act, Los Angeles had smog alerts where people with any kind of breathing problem at all were warned to stay indoors, which is why, as drinkypoo says, California has and has had the highest pollution standards in the country.

              I could never support Ron Paul. The young may not know better, but someone as elderly as he should know how utterly nasty things were before the EPA, and that pollution doesn't respect state borders.

          • If you like breathing, thank California. Also thank California for acting as the trial for these problems. Los Angeles proved what happens if you don't have a strong EPA

            Or alternatively, go to Bejing and breathe deep if you want to see what the U.S. would be like if the EPA and emissions standards had never happened.

          • The truth is that only California is serious about environmental protection, and the rest of you just want to rape the land and shit in your neighbor's mouths through the air.

            Yeah, but y'all have gone too far. Now we can't even put in the tech that would prevent horrible emissions in the first place because it might displace some animal. Or did you forget about the tortoise that delayed the Mohave solar plant [latimes.com]? And while I don't know if it is true, this isn't the 1st time the EPA shut something like this down, because I remember hearing about a gas station being shut down when they couldn't upgrade their storage tanks(to keep them from leaking fuel into the ground water) due t

      • by edjs ( 1043612 )

        This depends on how the the rule of the shorter term [wikipedia.org] is applied. It looks like you are SOL in the US.

      • by davester666 ( 731373 ) on Friday October 04, 2013 @02:23AM (#45033363) Journal

        Obviously, we must immediately extend copyright legislation everywhere else in the world, retroactively, to be AT LEAST what is enacted in the US or whatever the longest limits are anywhere in the world, otherwise...civilization will end.

        And we don't want that.

      • by 3247 ( 161794 )

        That indicates to me that the US rules are in effect for the US, even if the work was copyrighted outside the US.

        "Copyrighted outside the US" is nonsense. That's not how copyright law works. In fact, every work is copyrighted in every country according to the laws of that country. Even if a work was created in the UK, it is copyrightet under UK law, US law ... and the law of any other country that has the concept of copyright.

        Thus, if the doctor becomes PD in the UK, that only means that it is PD with respect to uses (such as copying) performed in the UK. If it's not PD in the US at the same time, then you infringe on

        • by AK Marc ( 707885 ) on Friday October 04, 2013 @03:50AM (#45033645)

          Thus, if the doctor becomes PD in the UK, that only means that it is PD with respect to uses (such as copying) performed in the UK. If it's not PD in the US at the same time, then you infringe on US copyright laws if you do the same in the US.

          If you can copy it in the UK, then you have a valid legal copy there. Are you allowed to bring your valid legal copy into the US? If so, then it's in PD in the US, in that anyone can go to the UK, print 10,000 copies, and bring them back, right? If not, then the US law applies everywhere, but only is enforced when you are in the US. I wouldn't put it past them enforcing a law against making Dr Who copies in the UK while outside the country and bringing back no copies. Much like traveling out of the US to have legal sex and returning to the US is illegal in the US, and people are arrested for it (depending on some variables around the sex).

          • by Half-pint HAL ( 718102 ) on Friday October 04, 2013 @04:05AM (#45033685)

            If you can copy it in the UK, then you have a valid legal copy there. Are you allowed to bring your valid legal copy into the US? If so, then it's in PD in the US, in that anyone can go to the UK, print 10,000 copies, and bring them back, right?

            No. There's a legally-recognised difference between importing for personal use and importing for resale.

            See also controlled medicines, alcohol and tobaco.

            • by AK Marc ( 707885 )

              No. There's a legally-recognised difference between importing for personal use and importing for resale.

              See also controlled medicines, alcohol and tobaco.

              Which is prohibited by copyright?

      • by jonbryce ( 703250 ) on Friday October 04, 2013 @03:14AM (#45033531) Homepage

        People are getting confused here. It is only the broadcast rights that are falling into public domain, not the public performance rights.

        If you take for example The Snowman, Raymond Briggs wrote the music. He retains the copyright on the music until 70 years after he dies. He is still alive so the clock hasn't started ticking yet. Other people have copyright in all the cartoon drawings, and I believe they are all still alive. The copyright exists on them until the last of them dies. Channel 4 first broadcasted it about 30 years ago. They own the copyright on the act of broadcasting it on public television anywhere in Europe for 50 years. There is about 20 years left to run on that.

        So, if for example RAI (Italian TV station) wants to broadcast it, they must get permission from Raymond Briggs, from the cartoon drawers, and from Channel 4. In 20 years time, they no longer have to ask Channel 4, but they still need permission from the other copyright holders.

      • by TheRaven64 ( 641858 ) on Friday October 04, 2013 @04:23AM (#45033741) Journal
        The Berne Convention says (warning: massive simplifications ahead) that each signatory must treat works copyrighted in other territories as if they were copyrighted in their own territory. That means that if something is copyrighted in the UK, then it is subject to UK copyright law in the UK, but if you are in the USA then it is subject to US copyright law. This means that it can be in the public domain in one place, but not in another.
        • by AK Marc ( 707885 )
          So 1984 is copyrighted in Australia because it's copyrighted in the US and in the public domain in Australia, so Australia has to treat it like it's copyrighted, as it is in the US, and the US will treat it as copyrighted as it is in the US. So the most restrictive laws win?
          • No, Australia has to treat it as if copyright were filed in Australia, and so it is in the public domain there, the US has to treat it as if copyright were filed there and so it's in copyright there.
    • by Seumas ( 6865 )

      I was just thinking about how the new episodes will likely not hit public domain until 2105 at the very earliest. Of course, who thinks current 95yr copyright law will really exist for the next hundred years and not be extended to "forever"?

      • Speaking of new episodes, I for one can't wait to see how Peter Capaldi will work out...

        Ladies and gentleman,

        The New Doctor [youtube.com]

        (Note: "strong language" doesn't even begin to cover this bit.)

    • by TWiTfan ( 2887093 ) on Friday October 04, 2013 @07:34AM (#45034451)

      U.S. Copyright law stipulates that copyrighted works only fall into the public domain when Disney runs out of money to bribe Congress for another extension.

    • Don't worry, I'll just jump in my TARDIS and get a copy from 3025. Of course, if I bring a copy back from the future, am I breaking copyright laws by possessing a copy when it's still under copyright? Man, time travel makes things messy!

  • by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 03, 2013 @11:31PM (#45032797)

    Thank you BBC beancounters. Thrifty today is costly tomorrow.

    • by TheRaven64 ( 641858 ) on Friday October 04, 2013 @04:30AM (#45033761) Journal

      The first serial (An Unearthly Child) survives and has been restored into pretty good condition. The second serial (The Daleks), also survives. The fourth serial (Marco Polo) is missing some episodes, and so are several of the later ones. Most of season 3 is lost (including all of four of the seven serials and most of several of them, such as The Daleks' Master Plan) and so are some important bits of Season 4 (including most of the last episode, when the first Doctor dies).

      It's a very good argument for shorter copyright, as copyright holders apparently can't be trusted to ensure that our cultural legacy survives.

      • by jeremyp ( 130771 )

        When Doctor Who was first broadcast, nobody knew that one day it would be part of our cultural legacy.

      • by TWiTfan ( 2887093 ) on Friday October 04, 2013 @07:48AM (#45034527)

        It's unfortunate that the BBC were so shortsighted and "recycled" the master tapes of so many great series. Of course, everyone knows the famous Monty Python story of how that series was almost lost too, but was saved [chicagotribune.com] by Terry Gilliam (who basically stole the tapes and put them in his attic). But very few series from that era were so lucky.

        • It's unfortunate that the BBC were so shortsighted and "recycled" the master tapes of so many great series. Of course, everyone knows the famous Monty Python story of how that series was almost lost too, but was saved [chicagotribune.com] by Terry Gilliam (who basically stole the tapes and put them in his attic). But very few series from that era were so lucky.

          I did not know that, though I've often wondered why they survived when so much else was lost. Also, "stealing the tapes" is not exactly a trivial exercise - the original Quad tapes were massive - 2" wide, 10.5" diameter and about 5KG each. If they had 2 episodes each, that's about 22 tapes he'd have had to sneak out of the archives. Not exactly something you can fit in your pocket...

    • by Sockatume ( 732728 ) on Friday October 04, 2013 @06:29AM (#45034139)

      They made the right call at the time, given that the alternative to was to archive every tape and stack up a nontrivial fraction of the BBC's budget in a vault in preparation for applications that didn't exist.

      Most media go through a period where the recording format is too valuable not to reuse (magnetic tape) or too fragile to store (nitrocellulose film, early print). Some day maybe we'll invent a way to record brain patterns, but I'm inclined to expect it'll be in a medium like defect-free carbon-hassium nanocrystals that cost $500,000 each. I don't doubt that some re-recording in whatever technology we come up with.

      NASA recorded over the Moon Landing masters, at a time when they were better-funded than they have ever been. The BBC is in good company.

      • Most media go through a period where the recording format is too valuable not to reuse (magnetic tape) or too fragile to store (nitrocellulose film, early print). Some day maybe we'll invent a way to record brain patterns, but I'm inclined to expect it'll be in a medium like defect-free carbon-hassium nanocrystals that cost $500,000 each. I don't doubt that some re-recording in whatever technology we come up with.

        And very probably, religious organisation will be up in arms to pass law that make "Soul-dubbing" restricted and regulated, and make "home soul-dubbing" completely and utterly illegal.
        So even if huge medical megacorp can't afford to keep brain-dump of absolutely everybody, just in case they turn to be important and influent scientists down the line, you won't be able to count on amateur "brainophile" to have recorded a brain dump of an important person and to have spread backups around.
        You can't even count

  • by deviated_prevert ( 1146403 ) on Thursday October 03, 2013 @11:44PM (#45032837) Journal
    The MPAA and the RIAA must be absolutely scared shitless about the logistics of having to police the galaxy up to 55 light years to make certain that "I love Lucy" is not being pirated. At least the Brits only have to police less than 1875 star systems for pirates. Man those aliens must be really happy out past 50 years that they are finally going to be able to record DR WHO! They must be wonder when they will be able to digitize Gun Smoke and Bonanza but that might not happen in their life times.
    • X stir men 8 (c)
    • by Sabriel ( 134364 )

      By the time typical terrrestrial radio/tv signals get about fifty light years out, they're almost indistinguishable from background noise. High-powered radar (the kind used by the military and in astronomy) has a lot more range, but isn't in the MPAA/RIAA's bailiwick.

      http://io9.com/are-we-screwing-ourselves-by-transmitting-radio-signals-493800730 [io9.com]

    • How does copyright work in a relativistic universe, anyway? In whose reference frame do we count the passage of time? Does the clock start when the original is created, or when I enter the light cone of the creation of the original?

      • It didn't cover relativity, but I highly recommend Year Zero by Rob Reid. It's a wonderful tale of what happens when aliens pirate our music like crazy and then discover our copyright laws and decide they want to abide by them. Hilarious and insightful all at the same time.

    • The MPAA and the RIAA must be absolutely scared shitless about the logistics of having to police the galaxy up to 55 light years to make certain that "I love Lucy" is not being pirated. At least the Brits only have to police less than 1875 star systems for pirates. Man those aliens must be really happy out past 50 years that they are finally going to be able to record DR WHO! They must be wonder when they will be able to digitize Gun Smoke and Bonanza but that might not happen in their life times.

      What do you think that "Race to Space" show they are planning is about? They are going to collect the old signals and bring them back where they belong!

  • by robbak ( 775424 ) on Thursday October 03, 2013 @11:50PM (#45032861) Homepage

    Namely, destruction of all extant copies.

    BBC destroyed the only copies of most of those episodes decades ago. The only existing copies are some that were sent overseas and temporarily lost, so they were not recovered and destroyed. Others only exist in the form of home-made speaker-to-microphone reel-to-reel audio tapes.

    • by Lirodon ( 2847623 ) on Friday October 04, 2013 @12:01AM (#45032889)

      Namely, destruction of all extant copies.

      BBC destroyed the only copies of most of those episodes decades ago. The only existing copies are some that were sent overseas and temporarily lost, so they were not recovered and destroyed. Others only exist in the form of home-made speaker-to-microphone reel-to-reel audio tapes.

      Actually, "wiping" was a rather common practice for every broadcaster back then. Tape was expensive, etc.

      • Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)

        by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Friday October 04, 2013 @01:12AM (#45033129)
        Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • by BigBadBus ( 653823 ) on Friday October 04, 2013 @01:16AM (#45033143) Homepage
          Also, don't forget that the Actors and Musicians union limited the number of repeats that could be shown in any given year; nowadays it seems to be mostly repeats with a few new programmes thrown in to the schedules occasionally.
          The Union members hated repeats as their members didn't get paid as much compared to first-run broadcasts. So effectively, the TV broadcasters were accumulating large amounts of material that they couldn't reshow.
        • by havana9 ( 101033 )
          Most episodes were also on 16 mm film. Unfortunately if they were not on modern safety film the temperamentality of old reel was like the one of a dynamite candle. When affordable VCR were available everybody started to telecine the fire liability with images on that they had on storage. Some episodes of doctor who were destroyed because the master 16 mm reels were marked wrongly as telecined and sent to recycle factory.
        • Not only that but that old tape was VERY temperamental about how much climate and humidity it would tolerate so had to be kept in...well practically a vault with strict climate control which is why so many shows from the 40s-60s were lost both in the USA and the UK, the cost to keep early tape in playable condition was just insane.

          Or you can just put it in a salt mine, done and done.

      • Some of the older material for shows of this era is preserved on cellulose. Unfortunately, as it ages, it becomes a lot more reactive until it will spontaneously ignite on contact with air. I spoke to someone from the BBC archives a few years ago and they have some warehouses with rolls of cellulose in barrels of oil (so that they won't come into contact with any oxygen). Each of these barrels is under a hopper of sand so that, if it does ignite, it can be extinguished before it spreads (a warehouse full
    • The missing episodes [wikipedia.org] don't start until a few serials in. There are decent quality copies of all of the first three serials [wikipedia.org] floating around. Almost all of the Second Doctor Patrick Troughton episodes are missing though. A few of the key ones are intact--"The Tomb of the Cybermen" and "The War Games" for example--but for the most part his entire run is gone.

      If only we had a way to go back and keep this happening, by using some sort of "time machine"...

      • by BigBadBus ( 653823 ) on Friday October 04, 2013 @01:01AM (#45033087) Homepage
        Episodes from Tom Baker's era onwards exist in their entirety. The catalogue of stories from before this is rather patchy, and I've put a list of what exists and what doesn't on my website [paullee.com] (though you'll need to make sure Javascript is running to see the what the key of icons represents.)

        Interestingly, when the "junking" of old Dr.Who episodes stopped in 1978, both the stories you cite ("Tomb" and "War Games") were either missing completely or the majority of episodes had gone; obviously they have since been recovered (the missing "War Games" episodes from the British Film Institute in 1979 and "Tomb of the Cybermen" from Hong Kong in 1991.)

        • AFAIK all the Jon Pertwee episodes exist, but not all of them exist in colour. In these cases, the Quad tapes were erased but the 16mm B/W copies for export survived. Some of them exist in colour but derived from low-quality copies (IIRC they managed to digitally marry the chroma signal from a Umatic copy of the NTSC conversion with the higher-res 16mm print to improve the quality).

          A couple of years back someone devised a way of partially reconstructing the colour signal by digitally decoding the RGB tria

          • Yes, you're right and this is why the weblink I gave above is a kaleidoscope of colours for all the different formats between 1970 and 1974; fortunately all those episodes are now in colour to varying qualities. The "Chroma Dot/Colour Recovery" process of which you speak has been used on 12 episodes of Dr.Who with varying degrees of success, and two non-Dr.Who episodes. But, in a nutshell, the Jon Pertwee now exists in colour in its entirety.
            • Yes, you're right and this is why the weblink I gave above is a kaleidoscope of colours for all the different formats between 1970 and 1974; fortunately all those episodes are now in colour to varying qualities. The "Chroma Dot/Colour Recovery" process of which you speak has been used on 12 episodes of Dr.Who with varying degrees of success, and two non-Dr.Who episodes. But, in a nutshell, the Jon Pertwee now exists in colour in its entirety.

              Ah yes, I knew I'd forgotten something - checking that link out. Thanks, it was well worth reading. I particularly liked how the NTSC icon was washed out compare to the PAL one...

              • :-)

                I know technology has improved a huge amount since then, but some of the 1970s/80s PAL to NTSC conversions were awful. Reds looked pink, blues looked turquoise and so on. So my little icon was a subtle "dig" at that ;-)

        • Episodes from Tom Baker's era onwards exist in their entirety. The catalogue of stories from before this is rather patchy, and I've put a list of what exists and what doesn't on my website [paullee.com] (though you'll need to make sure Javascript is running to see the what the key of icons represents.)

          There is the Tom Baker episode Shada [wikipedia.org] which wasn't completed as opposed to being wiped.

          • Well, yes, but does that count ;-) ? Whatever was completed before the strike dug its talons in has been preserved.
      • If only we had a way to go back and keep this happening, by using some sort of "time machine"...

        Oh but maybe we will go back and cause(d) it to happen...

    • Namely, destruction of all extant copies.

      BBC destroyed the only copies of most of those episodes decades ago. The only existing copies are some that were sent overseas and temporarily lost, so they were not recovered and destroyed. Others only exist in the form of home-made speaker-to-microphone reel-to-reel audio tapes.

      I think you're being funny, but for the benefit of those who have modded you 'informative'... it's absurd that this was an intentional avoidance of copyright. The BBC have been putting an inordinate amount of effort into recovering the lost material.

      • You'd be surprised.

        From 1993 onwards there has been a British Film Institute Initiative to recover lost British TV. Its called "Missing Believed Wiped." I attended the first two of these and we were told that anything - brief clips, audio recordings, cine film taken from a TV set, domestic VCR/VTR material etc. was of interest. But I know of a few cases where audio material was offered up and there was no interest. One BBC Engineer was given a lost Harry Worth TV episode and he kept it in his locker for th

  • by Jason Pollock ( 45537 ) on Thursday October 03, 2013 @11:54PM (#45032865) Homepage

    The music, script and everything else will still be under copyright, and those rights are required to make a copy of the show.

    What you _might_ be able to do is make a derivative work of the audio+video in the episode.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by TeXMaster ( 593524 )

      Wrong. It does mean you can copy it. That's exactly what copyright is about. You can (re)publish (and thus create copies of) works in the public domain as you see fit without paying royalties to anyone.

      • by Jason Pollock ( 45537 ) on Friday October 04, 2013 @03:21AM (#45033553) Homepage

        I think you should go read the legislation. Scripts and music embodied in video do not lose their rights by being embodied in the video.

        That's why music creators get royalties for every copy made.

        • So, if I edit it into a nonsensible, illegible mish-mash where neither story nor music exist any more, it'd be OK? Shouldn't US commercials solve that then?

    • We're talking about the BBC. If any part of the work was contracted out rather than being produced by a BBC employee, they would have bought the rights to it.
      Any generic music there might have been would be easy to change (c.f. the Quantum Leap DVDs).

  • To be honest, I think I can go the rest of my life without seeing The Aztecs or Land of the Giants again. On the other hand, I'd pay real money to see The War Machines.
  • wrong title (Score:2, Insightful)

    by sxpert ( 139117 )
    should read "elevated to public domain"
  • by fph il quozientatore ( 971015 ) on Friday October 04, 2013 @01:48AM (#45033275)
    50 years... in which time frame?
  • https://thepiratebay.sx/torrent/6725378/Complete_Original_Doctor_Who [thepiratebay.sx]
    https://thepiratebay.sx/torrent/6715960/Doctor_Who_2005-2011_Complete [thepiratebay.sx]

    Going to need to find 2012-, but they are all there on TPB also.

    Remember, if you like Doctor Who, support it in some way.

  • The UK laws granted a sole case of perpetual rights to 'Peter Pan', which J.M.Barrie had given to the Great Ormond Children's hospital. This isn't quite copyright that 'never grows up' ( see http://www.gosh.org/gen/peterpan/copyright/faq [gosh.org] ), but it comes pretty close. I think the UK legislation could be a bit flexible to a time traveller too.
  • by jackjumper ( 307961 ) on Friday October 04, 2013 @07:21AM (#45034379)
    I think it should be 'rise into the public domain'.
  • by GerryHattrick ( 1037764 ) on Friday October 04, 2013 @07:32AM (#45034445)
    Just when I thought it was safe (at 65+) to come out from behind the sofa...

"If there isn't a population problem, why is the government putting cancer in the cigarettes?" -- the elder Steptoe, c. 1970

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