It wouldn't be a reason or validation for others doing the same, of course.
However, whatever one would choose to do, it's best not to do it in GitHub..
> My hope is that the educational and non-profit intentions of this repository will enable it to stay hosted and available, but the original copyright holders do have the right to ask for it to be taken down, in which case I will comply without hesitation. I do hope, though, that along with the various other disassemblies and commentaries of this source, it will remain viable.
Patents last 20 years and people keep filing them in the millions. We remain an inventive species. Obviously the protection works. Why do we need to protect copyrights for near a century?
I have copyright content out there in the world (including the commentary aspects of this project), and I'd want to be able to control what happens to that too. Seems fair to me.
I won't write a long and boring critique of the current copyright length, but this work should be in the public domain at this point - nobody should be entitled to ask you to take it down. It should belong to you as much as it does to them. Like Algebra and Hamlet.
It in fact belongs to humanity, as the creation of the work itself was built on top of everything that came before it.