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Comment by 6stringmerc | Hacker News Reader

Again I’m incredulous by the perspective shared by Ars Technica (often trumpeted by TechDirt) that “what is going on is not how copyright SHOULD work” while giving no reasonable consideration to how legally legitimate cases like this are from a standpoint are in US copyright cases.

I get the desire to FIX copyright in the US, I stand to benefit and so does society and creative progress. But these sensationalist writers are the lowest form of clickbait by simply taking a victimization position and digging in (re: TechDirt and Goldiblox absolutely being in the wrong for ripping off the Beastie Boys for a Super Bowl ad).

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I’m not sure what your criticism is?

Ars is reporting on a legal case and also on people who say they will be harmed by that case. The reporter then goes on to detail the policy work that groups are doing to try to change copyright laws in the country.

What else would you like to see? A legal analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the case?

> What else would you like to see? A legal analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the case?

Exactly.

What are the facts of the case according to the plaintiff? What are the points of law being relied on?

Does the IA dispute the plaintiff's version of the facts and the interpretation of the law? If so, what points are they disputing?

If there have been similar cases, how did those cases go, and how were they different to this case?

700 million dollars in damages with no actual damages shown it's absolutely ridiculous

That's not really a substantive analysis of the issue, which I agree with the OP that these articles never really address fully.

Right, but that's how a lawsuit works. You take the number it says in the book, multiply it by the number of allegations, and you get a number. You have to write this number down in your filing, then Ars Technica uses it for clickbait.

Murder 18 people and you can go to jail for 720 years. Doesn't mean squat. It's the 18 murders not the 720 years.

Likewise the $700 million number isn't important. What's important is the 400,000 copyright violations with no strategy, when even Lessig says you're gonna get sued and lose.

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