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The U.S. Supreme Court today upheld a 1998 law that extends copyright for 20 years. Internet publisher Eric Eldred maintains a website where he posts out-of-print literature that's in the public domain for free. He and his lawyers had argued that the founding fathers intended creative works to eventually revert to the public domain for the benefit of all. The Supreme Court ruled that Congress was within its Constitutional powers to extend the length of copyright. NPR's Neda Ulaby reports.

Satirist Harry Shearer reflected on the apparently deteriorating standards of television networks (witness tonight's reality show, Man versus Beast) and movie studios (the upcoming Dumb and Dumberer, for example), and decided there's still a way to go in the "race to the bottom."

NPR's Don Gonyea reports that the Bush administration will weigh in on a critical affirmative action cases before the Supreme Court. The case involves a suit brought against the University of Michigan and its law school by white students who oppose the university's policy that gives minority students an advantage in applying for admission. The Bush administration is prepard to argue on behalf of the white plaintiffs.

At the San Francisco Zoo, six new penguins have had the rest of the group swimming in circles for the past month. The newcomers appear to have sparked a "migration" trend after the rest of the flock had enjoyed 19 years of sedentary life. The behavior is rare in captivity. NPR's John Ydstie speaks with zookeeper Jane Tollini.

Many species of shark are in decline, a development some researchers have been slow to note. The shark plays a pivotal role in the health of all marine life, and some fear the population dip could throw the underwater ecosystem out of balance. NPR's Richard Harris reports.

Host John Ydstie talks with WorldCom employee Jeff Regan about how the new economy affects his job and his family. Regan is a 14-year company veteran who suddenly finds himself worrying about being able to pay monthly bills. Despite his new financial struggles, he remains hopeful of his and his company's future. This interview begins an occasional series of conversations with people and their financial concerns.

NPR's Robert Siegel talks with Craig Timberg, reporter for The Washington Post about officials of the teachers union in the nation's capital coming under scrutiny for allegedly misusing funds.

NPR's Michele Norris talks with Kathryn Blume, co-founder of The Lysistrata Project, a coordinated schedule of world-wide readings of the play Lysistrata on March 3, 2003. The ancient Greek play tells the story of a woman who organizes a stand against war, getting women on both sides of a conflict to withhold sex from their husbands until the men agree to sign a peace treaty. She hopes the readings will mobilize an international theatrical voice against the Bush administration's war on Iraq.

A growing cadre of religious leaders is claiming that Jesus would certainly veto a war against Saddam Hussein. As an anti-war coalition put it in a full-page ad in The New York Times "it is inconceivable that Jesus Christ... would support this proposed attack." Commentator Joe Loconte says that the teachings of Jesus make it clear that evil can possess individuals and entire regimes, and that evil must be resisted, sometimes by force.

He wrote the screenplay for the film Undercover Brother, which began life as a Web site animation. The film, now out on DVD, is an action comedy [that] pokes fun at black action films of the 1970s and racial stereotypes. Ridley's latest novel is A Conversation with the Mann, about a black comic in the civil rights era of the early 1960s. This interview first aired January 10, 2002.