Re:EU Cancels 'Final' Negotiations on EU Copyright Directive
by scarejunba on Saturday January 19, 2019 @02:26PM
(#18948695)
Dude, people understand that "this copyright law has doomed the internet" means "if you stop this or undo it, it won't be a reason for the internet's doom". Fortunately, human interpretation is fluid enough that they understand this.
Just like if I say "damn it! I left the stove on! My house will burn down" the driver will say "oh shit! Let's go back" not "Since you have guaranteed that the house is going to burn down at this point I am not going to act. By a strict interpretation of your words, there is nothing that can be done. Let us continue onward to the cinema"
Seriously, man. Come on. This isn't a language thing.
Re:EU Cancels 'Final' Negotiations on EU Copyright Directive
by TomMarius on Saturday January 19, 2019 @04:10PM
(#18949198)
I completely agree with you, however: My own native tongue actually has bigger strictness than English (since as a Slavic language with Germanic influence it has many grammatical features that are not a part of common English), so I can see where the GP us coming from. There indeed were newspapers that claimed that the Internet is already doomed and they can't do anything at all. Sadly in my country, fear mongering is the leading newspaper marketing strategy, so this is not uncommon, and some people have learned to take them with a huge grain of salt. The problem lies in the word "some" - I share the country with millions of people that believe them literally, and it can be clearly seen in our national voting results.
Re:EU Cancels 'Final' Negotiations on EU Copyright Directive
by tyfon on Saturday January 19, 2019 @02:54PM
(#18948843)
So my last reply on this and the nesting is not going further, as it is really very off topic. But your first example sentence is in past tense and implies that the law already has passed (at least that is my interpretation) and the second example sentence is in future tense, not present tense.
But it might also be a cultural difference and not language difference I don't know.
Re:EU Cancels 'Final' Negotiations on EU Copyright Directive
by Dylan16807 on Sunday January 20, 2019 @12:46AM
(#18951412)
It doesn't really matter if the law is already passed. Undoing a law is harder than preventing a law, but not by all that much.
I've seen people arguing that "the internet is doomed" as if there is nothing one can do about it and the event that doomed it has already happened. I've even seen headlines of that form on HN. It is the same is if someone had written "the coral reef is doomed", then I would think that someone had dropped a nuclear bomb on it and that the event already happened.
As I said, I'm not against warning people what _can_ happen but I don't go around saying it already has happened. If it has happened then there is no action one can take (i.e., the dooms day scenario has already happened). That's what I wanted to convey in my first post really.
In any case it's very much a topic derailment in this case and I apologise for that.