
What Colour are your bits? - blasdel
http://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/lawpoli/colour/2004061001.php
======
ShardPhoenix
"It's not even correct to say "the probability of this being from a random
generator is very low" because that's not true - it either was or was not
randomly generated, that's not open to probability."

This isn't true when you take a Bayesian approach, where probability is a
statement about your knowledge rather than reality. In fact, it seems like the
whole issue could be greatly simplified/rationalized through application of
Bayesian ideas - "Color" then being determined probabilistically (in the
Bayesian knowledge sense) rather than absolutely.

Interesting article though.

~~~
baltoo
Perphaps I'm misreading you, but isn't that directly against the main gist of
the article. Historical events happened in a certain manner, there is no
probability involved. It's all 1.

Presented with partially unknowns about historical events one can use
different approaches to decide how to proceed, but when talking about law,
most things revolve specifically not about what's probable, but what actually
happened. There is no "probable". Isn't that the main point of the article?

It's quite easy, from a law perspective, to decide what to do when no sure
about what actually happened: let the accused go.

For most of us, though, this is not the type of answer we're after, and that's
one of the things the article is trying to make us understand: our
perspectives are different.

Neither perspective is inherently inferiour.

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patio11
This article is an oldy but goody about intellectual property law and how
programmers, et al, routinely fail to understand it because of a paradigmatic
difference in how they view data versus how other people (and the law) views
information.

~~~
rms
The CS perspective is correct though. IP law is truly absurd.

~~~
greendestiny
Copyright makes the act of copying something illegal. The only thing the bits
might give you is evidence of copying. Trying to think about the law governing
human actions only in terms of bits unsurprisingly fails.

~~~
eru
Isn't it the act of redistributing that's illegal?

~~~
swillden
No, the copying is illegal as well. It's just that copying without
redistribution is typically both hard to catch and not worth the copyright
holder's attention.

At least, that's how it is in US law. Details at:
<http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#106>

------
diN0bot
what's up with the strip-o-meter in the side bar? wacky.

~~~
baltoo
From the FAQ: [http://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/creative/bonobo-
conspiracy.php#stri...](http://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/creative/bonobo-
conspiracy.php#stripometer)

~~~
ahoyhere
That only explains the mechanics.

It doesn't answer the important question of WHY?

WHY on earth would an allegedly intellectual someone, who wants to be taken
seriously, include an anime stripper girl as a traffic meter?

I'm not offended, but I am bewildered by the lack of consideration of social
implication.

