- expressing personal feelings about the lawsuit
- honestly sharing one's lack of understanding of the legal or technical issues involved
- making brief, unsubstantiated claims about the lawsuit's merits
- discussing HN response to this story (as this comment)
I was really looking forward to educating myself on this topic from the HN comments, but it appears I am out of luck. Why is this (currently #1) story not attracting posts from the many HN users who could offer detailed and insightful analysis? Is it considered a toxic or an overly-politicized topic that most people avoid? Or there's some other explanation I'm not seeing?
1. No one knows. Real expert IP lawyers I know tend to think it's probably OK with various caveats.
2.) Under even simpler scenarios fair use is a pretty fuzzy line even for things that are better understood and often end up litigated on a case basis. Someone else gave various examples from music. I cited the Obama "Hope" poster elsewhere. Very little is absolute at the margins.