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Yale censored a student's course catalog site. I made an unblockable replacement

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Re: Yale censored a student's course catalog site. I made an unblockable replacement

#101

Post by cpwright »

aianus wrote: post #90
cpwright wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The meaningful difference is that you have 7 semesters of sunk cost, and can't write that you graduated on your resume. In other words, you are a drop-out. A BS is a filter that you'll find for lots of jobs (or graduate school); and although there are places that will hire you, it makes things harder than they would have been otherwise. If you want to get a bachelors degree from another school (1) it is likely to be…

Sunk costs are sunk. Unless the marginal utility of that piece of paper is worth compromising your ideals and dropping another $20k in tuition, the sensible thing to do would be to drop out. Given that he's already got the brand, the majority of the education, and the network of going to Yale, I'm not sure it is.

If you don't graduate you don't have the brand. He might be able to establish an independent brand with his plugin, but that is certainly more risky.

I generally don't think the Ivy league tuition compared to the differential of quality state schools is worth it when you are starting out, but in this particular instance the differential between a Yale degree and any other degree would probably be less than having to go elsewhere and end up equivalently as a sophomore/junior.

Re: Yale censored a student's course catalog site. I made an unblockable replacement

#102

Post by throwaway_yy2Di »

mcintyre1994 wrote: post #77
throwaway_yy2Di wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an active and vibrant defense of freedom, not some worthless British law. (Oh I'm sorry, did I just libel Her Majesty's judicial system? How careless of me. I should watch what I write).

Wait, why is the British law worthless? I'm assuming I'm mistaken, but your claim seems to be solely on the fact you can commit libel from what seems to be the USA on a website not hosted in the UK. That would seem to imply our entire legal system is broken because we don't censor other countries publications, and it'd obviously be interesting to hear the justification behind that.

"but your claim seems to be solely on the fact you can commit libel from what seems to be the USA on a website not hosted in the UK."

We're sidetracked, but that's pretty much the definition of libel tourism, and the UK is notorious for it:

http://www.economist.com/node/12903058

The UK routinely finds libel judgements against non-Britons, outside of Britain, having essentially no connection with the UK. It's an extremely broken system responsible for widespread legal harassment outside of Britain (examples in article).

It's not enforceable in the US obviously. There's a US law that explicitly prohibits that, provoked by a particularly egregious case.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPEECH_Act

Re: Yale censored a student's course catalog site. I made an unblockable replacement

#103

Post by RivieraKid »

lionhearted wrote: post #12

When I first left America, I disliked and felt disillusioned with the country. I've now spent more of my adult life outside the States than in the U.S., and I've also come to the opinion that the U.S. is one of the most amazing places in the world. Sometimes it's hard to point to exactly why America is so amazing. And the answer, maybe, is on display here. An undergraduate student at an elite university just innovati…

> It's just standard being-an-American stuff.

This kind behavior is probably more typical in the US than in Asia, but even more so in, let's say, France or the UK. I would say that many European countries have more individualism and freedom of expression than the US.

Re: Yale censored a student's course catalog site. I made an unblockable replacement

#104

Post by mhp »

"If Yale grants students access to data, the university does not have the right to specify exactly how students must view the data."

I disagree strongly with this statement. If the data is owned by Yale, they do in fact have the right to specify exactly how students must view the data.

Although it's frustrating to see copyright holders doing illogical or inefficient things with their copyrighted data, it is their right to determine the method and mechanism by which their data is consumed. Just because it is _possible_ to transform their data into a mashup, doesn't mean it's legal, ethical, or permissible. It doesn't matter if this transformation happens entirely within a viewer's computer, or if it happens on another server - if the copyright holder doesn't want their data to be transformed that way, it is their right.

Re: Yale censored a student's course catalog site. I made an unblockable replacement

#105

Post by ars »

mhp wrote: post #104

"If Yale grants students access to data, the university does not have the right to specify exactly how students must view the data." I disagree strongly with this statement. If the data is owned by Yale, they do in fact have the right to specify exactly how students must view the data. Although it's frustrating to see copyright holders doing illogical or inefficient things with their copyrighted data, it is their rig…

No it isn't. There is no such right.

Copyright holders want such a right, but they don't have it.

The entire concept of copyright in the first place is artificial - there is no moral copyright. So the only rights you have are the ones copyright gives you, and no more.

Not to mention there is no database right in the US, so they don't even have a copyright on the course database in the first place! (They do on the description of the courses, but not on the list of them.)

Re: Yale censored a student's course catalog site. I made an unblockable replacement

#106

Post by azakai »

ilaksh wrote: post #55

Make it a userscript instead of a Chrome extension and then Google can't block it from their store because it will be distributed openly. http://http://userscripts.org/ http://userscripts.org/about/installing

Your first url looks broken.

Re: Yale censored a student's course catalog site. I made an unblockable replacement

#107

Post by ganeumann »

ggchappell wrote: post #13

An interesting and apparently well executed effort. But, to be honest, your arguments reek of ignorance. > This is an unfortunate outcome, since Yale’s copyright assertion muddles the argument that Yale’s actions violate Peter and Harry’s freedom of speech. No it doesn't. Whatever Yale's responsibilities in the freedom-of-speech realm may be, they are entirely ethical in nature, as freedom of speech in the legal sens…

Freedom of Speech is not a legal right, it is an ethical right. It predates its US First Amendment codification by several hundred years and is also legally expressed in many other countries. To use your words, may I suggest you do not couch your arguments in terms of fallacious claims about freedom of speech?

I don't think commentators who decried Yale's hypocrisy were claiming that Yale violated the first amendment rights of the students. They were saying that the same people who fought vociferously for scores of years to secure their freedom of expression were quite quick to trample it when exercised by non-PhDs. I think this is a valid criticism.

Re: Yale censored a student's course catalog site. I made an unblockable replacement

#108

Post by arethuza »

throwaway_yy2Di wrote: post #102
mcintyre1994 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, why is the British law worthless? I'm assuming I'm mistaken, but your claim seems to be solely on the fact you can commit libel from what seems to be the USA on a website not hosted in the UK. That would seem to imply our entire legal system is broken because we don't censor other countries publications, and it'd obviously be interesting to hear the justification behind that.

" but your claim seems to be solely on the fact you can commit libel from what seems to be the USA on a website not hosted in the UK. " We're sidetracked, but that's pretty much the definition of libel tourism, and the UK is notorious for it: http://www.economist.com/node/12903058 The UK routinely finds libel judgements against non-Britons, outside of Britain, having essentially no connection with the UK. It's an ext…

Nitpick: You're talking about England and Wales, not the UK. In this part of the UK it's not even called "libel".

Re: Yale censored a student's course catalog site. I made an unblockable replacement

#109

Post by Drakim »

mhp wrote: post #104

"If Yale grants students access to data, the university does not have the right to specify exactly how students must view the data." I disagree strongly with this statement. If the data is owned by Yale, they do in fact have the right to specify exactly how students must view the data. Although it's frustrating to see copyright holders doing illogical or inefficient things with their copyrighted data, it is their rig…

I disagree.

According to this line of logic, if I use Yale's data to find a good class, and I verbally mention said class to you, my roomate, I would be giving you a piece data in a way Yale does not sanction. Making a website that better shows the data is essentially just a large scale recommendation online.

Of course, it could be argued that I shouldn't be allowed to recommend classes to other people, but I think most people wouldn't want to go down that path. Oh you have something negative to say about our product? You aren't authorized to use information about our product, such as it's name and function.

Re: Yale censored a student's course catalog site. I made an unblockable replacement

#110

Post by [deleted] »

mhp wrote: post #104

"If Yale grants students access to data, the university does not have the right to specify exactly how students must view the data." I disagree strongly with this statement. If the data is owned by Yale, they do in fact have the right to specify exactly how students must view the data. Although it's frustrating to see copyright holders doing illogical or inefficient things with their copyrighted data, it is their rig…

[deleted]
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