The Post has an article today on the shifting landscape of copyright law, focusing on how Arlen Specter's elevation to the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee may produce an environment less sympathetic to the content industry, if only because former chairman Orrin Hatch was squarely in the RIAA's pocket.

The article is an extended guess -- some folks think Specter will be preoccuppied with other issues and allow Hatch to continue to lead on IP law; others think Specter's detail-oriented nature will lead him wade into the debate, and that he may be more amenable to listening to organizations like the EFF.

Nobody really knows -- the article's evidence consists mostly of quotes from anonymous staffers talking up their bosses. All that you can really say is the end of Hatch's term is a good thing. Aside from sponsoring the vile DMCA, the man has approached copyright issues with a perspective warped by his aspirations to a recording career. I suppose brutally lame intellectual property deserves protection too, but I'm inclined to think that a chairman who identifies more with the commons than the content-owners would be a good thing.