[GTALUG] Google wins over Oracle in Java API copyright suit

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

| From: Russell Reiter via talk <talk at gtalug.org>

| I may be wrong. I was a member of an amature theatre group, we photocopied
| the stuff anyway. I think it was one of the teachers in that heritage group
| who put it that way to me, as a cultural right.

I'm pretty sure that that's wishful thinking.  Rationalization.

The copyright law is quite draconian.  People violate it on a regular
basis (well documented in many articles).  That's the only way it
becomes bearable.

DRM is so uncomfortable because (parts of) copyright law are enforced
automatically.  (Not to mention that all kinds of bizarre other things
being enforced, like watching FBI warnings.)

Rationalization is a natural part of internalizing laws.  Judging from
our traffic, most people believe in speed limits, but increase the
numbers by perhaps 20%.

This impulse to rationalize is a problem when applied to natural laws.
That's one reason why COVID hygeine rules are hard to follow.

(I cheat at solitare.  But I have rules about cheating.)

| I'm not sure that Brendan Behan would object to the Toronto Irish Players
| copying the script of Borstal Boy to introduce it to the citizens of
| Toronto, but I might be wrong about that as well.

Since he is dead, you can be sure that he wouldn't object.  (His body
is probably well-preserved due to its alcohol content.)

Being a Borstal boy, he probably wasn't particularly concerned with
laws.

More generally: a certain amount of copyright leakage is actually good
for the creator.  Microsoft dominates in the third world due to
piracy.  If copyright were enforced, Linux would dominate.