I often don't hazard an opinion at all, because the thread leaves me feeling I have too little sure knowledge of the relevant facts to offer an opinion.
Which is very sensible of you, of course. As a professional, you have to act with a certain degree of professional detachment and care. Your words matter in ways that mine do not. You charge money for your words, because they have a power and authority that mine lack.
But what you seem to be saying is that we, the general public, have a choice: We can discuss legal issues amongst ourselves. We can not discuss them at all. Or we can abandon the discussion of legal issues to lawyers and people who can afford lawyers.
Does anybody really think it would be a good idea for the public to just be quiet and leave the issues of IP law to credentialed experts? Isn't that just how abominations like the Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act happened in the first place? It turns out that large media companies can afford to hire a lot more experts than the EFF can. And that just because a lawyer understands more about law than you do doesn't mean he's more inclined to use that power in your interest than you are.
Lawyers understand the law. But citizens make the law (very indirectly, of course). And citizens suffer the consequences of laws. So it's our job to care about laws. Even if our mental models of how they work are a little... rough.
(Of course, it would be great if the public had better grounding in legal education, just as it would be great if we all knew more quantum mechanics. This is why so many people love Larry Lessig in the first place -- the guy writes books for non-lawyers.)
Of course, it would be great if the public had better grounding in legal education, just as it would be great if we all knew more quantum mechanics.
A lot of lawyers do volunteer time and effort to educate the general public about the law, and I am one of them. I write mostly about the law of parental freedom in education, my chosen legal specialty, and I welcome questions about that area of law from anyone.
I think people are more accepting of expert opinion about quantum mechanics than they are of expert opinion on the law because most people have preexisting lay opinion about the law before they seek advice. But, yes, we should all be talking with one another in a democratic republic as the law-making powers revise laws.
Which is very sensible of you, of course. As a professional, you have to act with a certain degree of professional detachment and care. Your words matter in ways that mine do not. You charge money for your words, because they have a power and authority that mine lack.
But what you seem to be saying is that we, the general public, have a choice: We can discuss legal issues amongst ourselves. We can not discuss them at all. Or we can abandon the discussion of legal issues to lawyers and people who can afford lawyers.
Does anybody really think it would be a good idea for the public to just be quiet and leave the issues of IP law to credentialed experts? Isn't that just how abominations like the Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act happened in the first place? It turns out that large media companies can afford to hire a lot more experts than the EFF can. And that just because a lawyer understands more about law than you do doesn't mean he's more inclined to use that power in your interest than you are.
Lawyers understand the law. But citizens make the law (very indirectly, of course). And citizens suffer the consequences of laws. So it's our job to care about laws. Even if our mental models of how they work are a little... rough.
(Of course, it would be great if the public had better grounding in legal education, just as it would be great if we all knew more quantum mechanics. This is why so many people love Larry Lessig in the first place -- the guy writes books for non-lawyers.)