The point is, judges make decisions based on these annotations. Therefore, if you're a private citizen, or even an attorney, and you're dealing with the court system, you must have access to the annotations or you're at a serious disadvantage. For that reason, hiding them behind a subscription or paywall is the equivalent of "secret" laws, or perhaps justice reserved for the well-to-do.
Supreme Court rules Georgia state law annotations not copyrightable [pdf]
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Re: Supreme Court rules Georgia state law annotations not copyrightable [pdf]
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not sure that it is. While I agree with the final outcome (seriously, why would the states be able to copyright annotations?), it sounds like the court ignored precedent and effectively made up a new law out of whole cloth to reach this outcome. We may be okay with this particular outcome, but would we feel the same way if they did it for say Roe v. Wade (or some other more established opinion that you like, depe…
I’m not so sure it ignores precedent, although it definitely extends it. I think Ginsberg in her dissent says it well that the issue follows from related precedent as such: “To explain why, I proceed from common ground. All agree that headnotes and syllabi for judicial opinions—both a kind of annotation—are copyrightable when created by a reporter of decisions, Callaghan v. Myers, 128 U. S. 617, 645–650 (1888), but a…
That may be fair; rereading Ginsburg's dissent though I'm still left wondering if it makes sense to apply precedent in the way the majority did, or if they were just making things up. It's quite possible that I'm just misunderstanding what I'm reading too though.
Re: Supreme Court rules Georgia state law annotations not copyrightable [pdf]
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
They overturned an at the time recent Supreme Court verdict, which is disruptive and counter to long standing precedent. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin_v._Michigan_Chamber_of_...
That doesn’t make a decision “wrong.” Lots of Supreme Court opinions are wrong, and often obviously so. There is nothing wrong with overruling them. Citizens United was an instance of the government sliding down a slippery slope of precedent, which forced that precedent to be re-evaluated. The facts (the government attempting to punish someone for distributing a political movie about a political candidate) were so st…
Well said (about the dynamics of why a precedent would be reversed) ... and welcome back.
Re: Supreme Court rules Georgia state law annotations not copyrightable [pdf]
#64Aside from the particulars of this case, I feel that the whole subject of copyright is generally anti-competitive and rent-seeking, as codified in the laws and time limits being inflated grossly to suit copyright holders in the current era. In my opinion, the argument that copyright extension incentivizes authors/creators doesn't hold much water. I generally observe that there are plenty of people willing to create a…
Intellectual property is the probably the number one way the western world oppresses the poor.
Intellectual property monopoly oppresses everyone, not just the poor.
Re: Supreme Court rules Georgia state law annotations not copyrightable [pdf]
#65Aside from the particulars of this case, I feel that the whole subject of copyright is generally anti-competitive and rent-seeking, as codified in the laws and time limits being inflated grossly to suit copyright holders in the current era. In my opinion, the argument that copyright extension incentivizes authors/creators doesn't hold much water. I generally observe that there are plenty of people willing to create a…
If you want to retain a professional creative class then you must implement a system that allows them to benefit from the works they produce.
To rely on people producing things producing things without economic incentive is essentially the argument for anarchosocialism. It might work to some small degree for passion projects, but what the overall volume of creative production would collapse as creatives would have to find other ways to support themselves.
Re: Supreme Court rules Georgia state law annotations not copyrightable [pdf]
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
What if it's right, but the constitution is wrong?
Then you follow the procedure outlined in article 5 to amend the Constitution.
That is much easier said than done.
It’s 2020 and we still don’t have a gender equality amendment even though the majority of states want one.
...let alone amendments for healthcare as a right, abortion rights, and proportional representation.
Re: Supreme Court rules Georgia state law annotations not copyrightable [pdf]
#67Aside from the particulars of this case, I feel that the whole subject of copyright is generally anti-competitive and rent-seeking, as codified in the laws and time limits being inflated grossly to suit copyright holders in the current era. In my opinion, the argument that copyright extension incentivizes authors/creators doesn't hold much water. I generally observe that there are plenty of people willing to create a…
IP laws are anti-competitive and rent-seeking, that's exactly the point. I agree that the amount of time copyrights are good for is ridiculous, but I still think it's better than not having them.
Imagine if J.K.Rowling wrote the first 3 Harry Potter books but didn't see a dime because the second they got popular everyone with a printing press started selling them royalty-free. Would she have finished the series? I got to read all 7 books because J.K.Rowling was incentivized to write them by her copyright.
Re: Supreme Court rules Georgia state law annotations not copyrightable [pdf]
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Meanwhile, German students went back to school a week ago. And in Sweden, lower schools were never even shut down in the first place. Logical analysis Where do you fit Italy, Spain, or even Portugal in your logica analysis? Because arguably the US is being hit harder than any of those countries and yet they are respecting their quarantine with notable results. Meanwhile, neither Germany nor Sweden has suffered as m…
The US has not been harder but than Italy or Spain, or even Sweden. Sweden has had 2,300 COVID-19 deaths for 10 million people. The USA has 25 times as many deaths, but 32 times the population. Indeed, American cities with similar population and density to Stockholm have far fewer deaths. Washington DC is a little smaller and has similar density, but has had 165 deaths, versus over 1,100 in Stockholm. (Deaths are dou…
> The US has not been harder but than Italy or Spain, or even Sweden.
You should check the facts. In the past few weeks New York alone reported more covid infections and deaths than Spain's total from the start of their outbreak, and New York has around 25% the population of Spain.
New York also has between 2 to 3 times the number of active covid cases that Spain has, which indicates the death count will only get far worse than what it already is.
> American cities with similar population and density to Stockholm
You may try to cherry pick anything, but the facts are the facts.
Re: Supreme Court rules Georgia state law annotations not copyrightable [pdf]
#69Aside from the particulars of this case, I feel that the whole subject of copyright is generally anti-competitive and rent-seeking, as codified in the laws and time limits being inflated grossly to suit copyright holders in the current era. In my opinion, the argument that copyright extension incentivizes authors/creators doesn't hold much water. I generally observe that there are plenty of people willing to create a…
Intellectual property is the probably the number one way the western world oppresses the poor.
I assume you’re referring to drug patents with that remark?
Re: Supreme Court rules Georgia state law annotations not copyrightable [pdf]
#70[deleted]