Hacker News Reader

Comment by gpshead | Hacker News Reader

Nobody likes an asshole, even a responsible one.

So in order not to be "an asshole" German published should just limit themselves to copyright defined by US?

I'm sure Disney wouldn't be happy either if their movies that are still under copyright in the US were to be published for everyone to download on a server in some country that had shorter copyright than US. They'd try to sue as well.

Your argument is "there are other assholes". While true, that still doesn't make them likeable. ["Likable"? Never saw that spelling before.]

That's not my argument. My argument or rather question is "Why do we get upset if someone in another country enforces their longer copyright period while we don't get upset every time American companies enforce theirs?" In my perception copyright periods are all insanely long.

Oh, absolutely agreed with that. I'm against Imaginary Property anyway. And I do get upset every time American companies enforce their copyrights :)

In the US, yes. Disney would be free to ask US courts to require ISPs in the US to block those servers, assuming they have no more direct legal route by treaty.

Disney could also apply legal sanctions to the owners of the servers, should they ever travel to the US, and could probably convince the US Marines to extradite the owner. But I don't think that should be encouraged.

I'm sure Disney wouldn't be happy, but that doesn't mean they should have legal recourse (beyond in the US - e.g. targeting downloaders) either. If German law was changed to place Snow White back under copyright, I suspect Disney would not accept that as having effect in the US.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com