That's where the light is

Ah, dysfunctionality (no, not the Mark McKenna kind).  I could pay the Copyright Office over $300 for it to search its records (publicly available online already, thanks to the University of Pennsylvania), to confirm that the copyrights in the lamps at issue in Mazer v. Stein were, in fact, not renewed, and then $30 more to get a picture of the lamp base they have at the Office.  Or I coud buy one of the darn things off of eBay for less money and take as many pictures as I wanted.  On the one hand, the Office has a professional photographer, which I am not.  On the other, it’s an annoying amount to pay for a search with a foreordained answer, and at the end of the eBay option I’d have the actual lamp (which, of course, might break, and then I’d feel bad, so maybe it’s not as big a plus as I initially thought).  Decisions, decisions.  On the plus side, the research on this has provided me with a picture of the ad run by the defendant copier, so that’s neat.