Re: Copyright Misuse Doctrine in Apple v. Psystar

[David Kastrup]

c.c.eiftj@XReXXCopyr.usenet.us.com (Rahul Dhesi) writes:

> Hyman Rosen <hyrosen@mail.com> writes:
>
>>Rahul Dhesi wrote:
>>> Since we don't know the whole story, let's not assume victory.
>
>>I don't see why not. It remains a fact that anyone who now gets
>>an Actiontec router has the GPLed firmware source code available,
>>whereas that was once not true. That is a positive difference that
>>has occurred as a result of the actions of the SFLC.
>
> Your baseline is wrong. You can always pick two points A and B and
> claim a positive difference. If somebody starts beating you, and then
> stops, you can claim that the stopping is a positive difference and
> that you are therefore victorious. This is not how common sense works.

Last time I looked, this was quite accurately how common sense works.

Take a look at environmental issues.  If we start from blowing out our
natural ressources at a rate of 1000000 times it took to build them up,
then it is hailed as a great victory if we manage to reach consensus to
reduce this to 950000 times in 20 years, and praise ourselves on our
intelligence if we indeed manage to keep it to 1200000 times after half
the scheduled time.

So a victory is reclaimed not if the beating stops, but if the beater
can be persuaded to promise merely to keep up his beating rate, and he
does not break the promise all too glaringly.

That's common sense for you.  Sorry for the interlude.  I just recommend
a different line of argument.

-- 
David Kastrup