His sister Susan, however, disagreed, saying, “It’s beautiful against all gray rocks and bare trees.”

No matter what people thought, everyone visiting park seemed to discuss artistic merits of project, even talking to strangers in a city of people who rarely make eye contact. The communal experience, says Beth Fichtel who works in Manhattan, is better than 7,500 steel structures wrapped throughout park. “The energy in air is contagious and it’s cool to be in something as enormous as Central Park and be surrounded by tons of people all talking about same thing.”

While he jogged underneath colorful billowing fabric, Manhattan resident Danny Schwartz asked, “I like it, but I don’t think it can be defined as art, but who’s to say really?”

Well, architectural student Amanda Herron, 22, reverently believes that Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s work is highly creative and refused to miss their recent endeavor, so she flew in from Alabama just for event.

“Their art is inspiring, we study their installations in school and how they are able to change a space dramatically, then leave and change what people originally thought of space,” said Herron. “It is so interesting, it comes and people soak it in, and then it’s gone.”

Herron further suspects that even after The Gates are removed, people will still be discussing them. For now her theory is true, The Gates are a big topic of conversation and debate at office, in news and around world.

Disney lobbied Congress heavily and Congressman Sonny Bono introduced legislation to extend copyright protection for an additional 20 years. This legislation passed in 1998 -- but only applied to items that were not yet in public domain. Thus, an item copyrighted in 1992 was public domain after 75 years -- but anything copyrighted in or after 1923 was protected for 95 years.

So -- to play it perfectly safe and legal -- if copyright date on a published work is 1922 or earlier, item is now in public domain and may be freely used (but not necessarily re-copyrighted and sold). If copyright date is 1923 or later, it's best to leave it alone till at least year 2018!

So what good is a book published and copyrighted prior to 1923? Well, if it's a book of sheet music -- or a book of classic poetry, literature, or theater -- or a book of formulae, travel, or ... well, you get idea. Some things become dated -- but some things are just as current today as they were when they were originally published.

This doesn't mean you can find a book by Mark Twain in bookstore and freely copy and distribute it. You'll likely find copyright on that published work is fairly current. However, if you find an old version of same book published and copyrighted prior to 1923, then you can safely use it!

The best places to spot these treasures -- try your local public library, used bookstores, or estate sales.