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Who on earth is trying to make any kind of argument that laws constitute creative expression? From the laws I've read, they seem to embody a perfect example of
by steelframe 8y ago
Who on earth is trying to make any kind of argument that laws constitute creative expression? From the laws I've read, they seem to embody a perfect example of the polar opposite of creative expression.
- Max_aaa 8y agoOne can be very "creative" in killing creative expression.
- SilasX 8y agoI don't think the idea is absurd on its face. Stuff like the building code or similar engineering standards doc will involve significant judgment in balancing competing concerns, just like a drawing of a bridge.
- erichurkman 8y agoIf you cannot read the laws you are subject to, should the government be able to punish you for breaking them? If the ICC wanted to keep their work papers private, they should not lobby to get the enacted as laws and code. No one is forcing them to lobby their rules to state houses & cities.
- SilasX 8y agoYou can read them, just for a small payment. Before the internet, you might have had to pay to travel to a library. Was that wrong too?
- erichurkman 8y agoIf the library charges? Yes. In the age of the Internet, where data storage and transmission costs are effectively $0 for basic text documents, there is absolutely no excuse for all laws and codes to be 100% public domain. It's not as if the government has to print a physical book for every citizen.
- SilasX 8y agoFair enough, but that's a different argument from "it is 100% categorically wrong for anyone to have to incur any material cost to access the laws". If travel has costs and you have to travel to the library to learn it, that already violates it. And you're still sidestepping the issue of the codes having a cost of production like any intellectual work, in terms of deciding e.g. the optimal balance to put in terms of safety vs cost of a building code. It doesn't cost for each access, but they do have to amortize that cost, and it makes sense for the cost to be allocated toward those who do specialized work in that domain.
- Mirioron 8y agoIn fact, I would go even further and say that it should be illegal to force somebody to follow laws and regulations that are not publicly and easily accessible. By this I mean that people enforcing this or pushing for it should be punished. It's basically racketeering.
- SilasX 8y agoDoes “having to go to the library” or “paying $10/month for a subscription for doing things most people don’t do” count as “not easily accessible”?
- joesb 8y agoIt depends on if the library will sue you for trying to make a copy of those law so that not everyone has to comes to the library in the future.