Sherlock Holmes

The foe of Moriarty is apparently worth a lot of money, according to this NYT article.  Apparently, the Holmes character is still under copyright, and there has been much legal wrangling among Holmes's heirs as to who should pocket the dough.

The obvious response to who should pocket the dough is: nobody.  Sherlock Holmes is 123 years old this year.  The fact that he still "belongs" to anybody in particular and not the public at large says to me that there is something very wrong with the current state of copyright law in America.