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Famous judge spikes Apple-Google case, calls patent system “dysfunctional”

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Re: Famous judge spikes Apple-Google case, calls patent system “dysfunctional”

#121

Post by monochromatic »

zaphar wrote: post #84
monochromatic wrote: post #82

What do you know, a judge from an appeals court that never hears patent cases doesn't know anything about how the patent system works. Why we let circuit judges sit by designation on cases that are literally outside their jurisdiction escapes me.

Your other comment I saw indicate an personal prejudice against this judge. I'm curious, what did he do to earn your ire?

He's just kind of a publicity hound. I find that his opinions are usually well-reasoned, so this one is kind of an exception. Basically, I think he's a decent judge, but I don't like him much. This time, though, I think he's out of his depth.

Re: Famous judge spikes Apple-Google case, calls patent system “dysfunctional”

#122

Post by crusso »

scarmig wrote: post #120
crusso wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>That wasn't a racial attack "attack" might be a strong word, but it was definitely a racist comment. Whenever you generalize or predict behavior or outcomes based upon race, you've made a racist comment. Maybe you liked the sound of it. Doesn't really matter, though, does it? Substitute "black" for "white" and how does your original statement sound? You're decrying the solutions that those three guys could come up w…

I'm not so sure. They were also described as men. Does that make it sexist? They were also described as privileged. Does that make it class warfare? The point is obviously that they come from the same, very particular place at the very top of the same hierarchy that's created the world we now live in. Simply because the media has chosen to glamorize those people more than others doesn't mean we should do the same. Wh…

> They were also described as men. Does that make it sexist?

It notes the sex of the decision-makers and implies the quality of results as part of a generalization, so I guess it is sexist.

> They were also described as privileged. Does that make it class warfare?

Warfare? That has a lot of extra meaning. "Classist" would be more clinical.

Words like "racist", "sexist", and "classist" have real definitions and you don't get to apply them only when they support portions of an argument that you happen to agree with.

Re: Famous judge spikes Apple-Google case, calls patent system “dysfunctional”

#123

Post by Sniffnoy »

lmarinho wrote: post #104
Sniffnoy wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, the basis for the modern treatment of Euclidean geometry is the explicit construction of the plane as R ^2. Axiomatization is reserved for things like set theory and elementary number theory. Although Hilbert's axioms aren't exactly even a proper axiomatization anyway, seeing as it's a second-order axiomatization, and thus requires some ambient set theory. But if you've got set theory, you may as well construct i…

Good point, my statement was poorly formulated. While I agree that analytic geometry and other developments in the field could be more fundamental, Hilbert's formalization can still be useful to express more precisely what one means by "points" and "lines", being, I think, applicable to the current discussion.

On the contrary, it's an axiomatization, and thus only describes the relation between them. If by "what one means by them" you mean a definition, then you'll need a construction for that. Of course, for the most part, the relation between them is what we mean by them; but Hilbert's formalism doesn't seem to be a good way to address such statements as the one that started this, "a point is a line segment of zero length".

Re: Famous judge spikes Apple-Google case, calls patent system “dysfunctional”

#124

Post by celer »

hyperbovine wrote: post #110
joshuahedlund wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is Posner NOT on the Supreme Court?

He's too opinionated. I'm serious. Ever since Bork, the trend has been towards finding nominees who have left the smallest possible paper trail of potentially damning legal opinions. And so you're left with the farcical confirmation hearings of e.g. Elena Kagan. The majority of sitting justices are/were not brilliant jurists or legal scholars for this very reason.

I would add he is old enough that the appointment would have relatively limited value. In an increasingly politicized court, it might be better for a president to appoint someone with limited intellectual weight who will be a reliable (liberal or conservative) vote on the supreme court for a long time than a brilliant scholar who might step down in a few years, at least from a political power standpoint.

Re: Famous judge spikes Apple-Google case, calls patent system “dysfunctional”

#125

Post by raj_o »

j-b wrote: post #31
arjunnarayan wrote: post #5

This opinion is both extraordinary and extremely significant. Richard Posner is probably the most prolific legal intellectual not on the supreme court. He co-writes, along with Gary Becker (Nobel Prize winner in Economics) this excellent blog http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/ Posner is the author of the 4th most cited Law Review article in the field of intellectual property law[1]. Most telling of all is this statis…

An excellent quote from Posner: "The institutional structure of the United States is under stress. We might be in dangerous economic straits if the dollar were not the principal international reserve currency and the eurozone in deep fiscal trouble. We have a huge public debt, dangerously neglected infrastructure, a greatly overextended system of criminal punishment, a seeming inability to come to grips with grave en…

He missed talking about our massive trade deficit, which is the cornerstone of many of the other financial problems we have. Obviously cheap prices is a valid goal for an economy to work well but without good paying jobs then it barely aids the economy as a whole. Is it any wonder our fiscal problems are so great including, but not limited to, our currency being devalued internationally.

How many dollars can you pack into foreign FOREX reserve accounts?

Re: Famous judge spikes Apple-Google case, calls patent system “dysfunctional”

#126

Post by spikels »

gruseom wrote: post #76

Posner is so famous and respected and such a polymath that his absence from the Supreme Court is conspicuous. Does anyone know why he's never been nominated?

My understanding is that back in the 80s & 90s when he was being considered for the Supreme Court he was repeatedly blocked by Joe Biden then chair or ranking minority member on the Judiciary Committee. Not sure of the exact issue that drove this.

Re: Famous judge spikes Apple-Google case, calls patent system “dysfunctional”

#127

Post by wpietri »

reader5000 wrote: post #111
wpietri wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see. And if I point out that the KKK is all white dudes, then I'm also being racist? What a meanie I am! Pointing out the unbalanced composition of a group meant to solve society's problems is not in any way racist. It's a specific application of the general rule that humans have hard time understanding the experiences of people different than themselves, especially when there's privilege involved.

Unlike the kkk, there is no indication the OP chose the three men on account of their race. To therefore attack them on the basis of their race is an ad hominem racial assault. Furthermore, obviously the three are privileged compared to a kid born in, say, Ethiopia, but I don't see how that illegitimates them for a discussion on America.

It doesn't mean they can't participate in the discussion. It does mean that if they're the only people in the discussion, there's probably going to be some things wrong with the outcome.

Re: Famous judge spikes Apple-Google case, calls patent system “dysfunctional”

#128

Post by slurgfest »

crusso wrote: post #114
portman wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would like Paul Graham, Richard Posner, and perhaps Mike Bloomberg to have a long, meandering dinner party wherein they discuss and solve America's most important problems. It worked for Jefferson/Madison/Hamilton 222 years ago. This could be exactly what we need.

You referenced Mike Bloomberg in the same thought and within the same context as you did Thomas Jefferson? Thomas Jefferson's head would explode if he witnessed the dictatorial authority with which Bloomberg is attempting to control the most minute aspects of citizens' lives. Madison and Jefferson did everything they could to allow people to be free from the control of government. They would both be tremendously sadd…

What do you mean by 'tyranny'? Are you referring to taxes?

Since you mention tyranny and a point of no return, I suppose your solution will be to start killing people who you find to be complicit with the government? Watering the tree of liberty, etc. etc.?

Re: Famous judge spikes Apple-Google case, calls patent system “dysfunctional”

#129

Post by slurgfest »

Locke1689 wrote: post #112
te_chris wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By the rich for the rich then? Sounds about right. Seriously though, you want 3 privileged, white men to decide the fate of your entire country? I'm all for smart people coming up with solutions, and I know your comment wasn't mean't to be taken too seriously, but this is just ridiculous. Technocracy is not the answer, no matter how much technologists would love it to be.

Technocracy is not the answer Why not? Democracy doesn't seem to be so great.

Well, one problem is to ensure that the people making the decisions really are more knowledgeable and really can act in a disinterested way, rather than this just becoming an excuse for a full-blown power grab. Democratic power grabs, although very problematic, tend to have time limits.

Another problem is getting your technocracy to be accepted. Installing it only to have it quickly overthrown is another scenario for getting a dictator.

Re: Famous judge spikes Apple-Google case, calls patent system “dysfunctional”

#130

Post by slurgfest »

molmalo wrote: post #103
nathantotten wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The founding fathers were all privileged white men.

And then you had almost a century of slavery... I think that he has a point in saying that if you have an heterogeneous society, it's not wise to put all the power in an homogeneous group.

It is worth observing that slavery was not universally practiced or accepted in the US and that ending it involved, among other things, a mind-boggling pile of corpses, the suspension of habeas corpus and the near destruction of the US as a political unit. Moreover, that the great empires maintained de facto slavery in their colonies up into the 60s. So I think there is a serious lack of historical perspective when you are trying to ding the founding fathers very hard for slavery, as if they all intended it, as if this were some kind of inevitable result of putting white people in power.

I like affirmative action, but I don't think it is a viable principle for determining political rights, which should be universal and colorblind rather than being denied or granted based on race or a distaste for homogeneity.

The idea that white people should not have power because of their inherent moral depravity is definitely a racist idea.

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