4 ms·

"Legal hacks" are rarely, if ever, as clever as their proponents think. Scepticism is natural and warranted. Judges aren't complete morons and will take a dim

"Legal hacks" are rarely, if ever, as clever as their proponents think. Scepticism is natural and warranted. Judges aren't complete morons and will take a dim view of "hacks". There could be loopholes somewhere but you'd need a lawyer to spot them.

jordigh 8y ago
One of the most famous "legal hacks", Richard Stallman's copyleft, had to be rewritten by a lawyer. rms wrote GPLv1 by himself and you should never use it. GPLv2 is the version that was actually vetted by a lawyer. A similar thing happened with Perl's Artistic License. Its version 2 is basically also a lawyer-approved rewrite. In other words, hackers, don't try this at home. There are professionals who can do this for you.
- nickpeterson 8y ago
  I find it somewhat sad that law is basically a guild where arcane language is used to gatekeep what should be a much more straightforward exercise.
  - Karrot_Kream 8y ago
    It's not. It's the equivalent of saying "I can do this better" and producing unreliably, buggy code. Sure you can, but a more experienced professional can point out all the corner cases you missed.
    - sbov 8y ago
      Then when it fails, you blame the programming language rather than your experience in programming.
  - heavenlyblue 8y ago
    I mean, if you pay attention to the names of the kernel API functions, you'd probably end up with the same conclusion.
  - jancsika 8y ago
    I find it somewhat sad that programming is basically a guild where arcane language is used to gatekeep what should be a much more straightforward exercise.
    - rhacker 8y ago
      Hahaha, actually at some point in the future, I suspect 25 years or so, our programming guild will likely have taken over and replace the legal guild.
      - majewsky 8y ago
        This would make an interesting entry on http://longbets.org/ http://longbets.org/
TeMPOraL 8y ago
Very relevant xkcd: https://xkcd.com/1494/ https://xkcd.com/1494/.

jordigh 8y ago

One of the most famous "legal hacks", Richard Stallman's copyleft, had to be rewritten by a lawyer. rms wrote GPLv1 by himself and you should never use it. GPLv2 is the version that was actually vetted by a lawyer. A similar thing happened with Perl's Artistic License. Its version 2 is basically also a lawyer-approved rewrite. In other words, hackers, don't try this at home. There are professionals who can do this for you.

nickpeterson 8y ago
I find it somewhat sad that law is basically a guild where arcane language is used to gatekeep what should be a much more straightforward exercise.
- Karrot_Kream 8y ago
  It's not. It's the equivalent of saying "I can do this better" and producing unreliably, buggy code. Sure you can, but a more experienced professional can point out all the corner cases you missed.
  - sbov 8y ago
    Then when it fails, you blame the programming language rather than your experience in programming.
- heavenlyblue 8y ago
  I mean, if you pay attention to the names of the kernel API functions, you'd probably end up with the same conclusion.
- jancsika 8y ago
  I find it somewhat sad that programming is basically a guild where arcane language is used to gatekeep what should be a much more straightforward exercise.
  - rhacker 8y ago
    Hahaha, actually at some point in the future, I suspect 25 years or so, our programming guild will likely have taken over and replace the legal guild.
    - majewsky 8y ago
      This would make an interesting entry on http://longbets.org/ http://longbets.org/

TeMPOraL 8y ago

Very relevant xkcd: https://xkcd.com/1494/ https://xkcd.com/1494/.