"Melancholy Elephants" is a Hugo Award-winning science fiction short story written by Spider Robinson in 1983.
The story examines the interaction of copyright and longevity, and the possible effects of the extension of copyright to perpetuity.
Its title is a reference to claims that elephants "never forget".
A woman desperately tries to convince a powerful senator to oppose perpetual copyright— because the fate of humanity is at stake.
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