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It's political but it's not capital-P political. Politics is a sufficiently broad idea that virtually all the machinery of society would qualify, but what's be
by NoSorryCannot 6y ago
It's political but it's not capital-P political.
Politics is a sufficiently broad idea that virtually all the machinery of society would qualify, but what's being spoken about here is the kind of politics that has to do with propaganda and information control. And indeed, this is not that.
There are many different usages of the word. The one in legal theory that, for example, is used by courts to exclude cases of a "political" nature is of course different from the one used in academia or else all cases would be forbidden!
- burkaman 6y agoI think copyright is about information control. I'm not trying to be pedantic, I just don't think there's much difference between "Politics" and politics, and filing a lawsuit is a clearly political act. Politicians write laws so that they can be used in court. Even more straightforward-seeming court cases, like murder trials, are political in that the government can't apply every law to every person all the time, so it has to make political decisions about what laws and what people to focus on. In this case, a large organization is asking the court to interpret a law that effects a huge portion of American society and determines when and how information can be spread. In the US, the court's interpretation of a law is as important if not more important than the legislative process that created the law.
- NoSorryCannot 6y agoI really can't see a resemblance here with the kind of nefarious machinations with an agenda that are being referenced. Copyright doesn't really control or distort the flow of media or ideas in a way that favors any particular politics.
- a1369209993 6y agoI think NoSorryCannot is making a distinction between object-level political motivations (ie, the books themselves are political and the burners wish to deny people access specifically to the viewpoints represented within) versus meta-level political motivations (the burners want to establish a precedent that they are entitled to burn books, but don't have any particular objection to the content of said books).