“Oh, people can come up with statistics to prove anything, Kent. 14% of people know that.”
-Homer Simpson

The thing with symbols is that they don’t have have objective meanings. Their meanings are entirely a matter of interpretation and they’re incredibly fluid.

Necklaces can also be symbols of oppression. Chains, in general are far more commonly used as symbols of oppression than any article of clothing. There’s the obvious association with collars that are used to control slaves and livestock. There is also slavery symbolism associated with ankle and wrist bracelets, largely due to their similarity to shackles.

The ultimate test is what the individual thinks of it. If we’re forbidding a girl from wearing some article of clothing that she wants to wear, we’re the oppressors. If we’re truly worried about some situation where parents are forcing their children to wear some clothing a more appropriate response would be to either ban all religious clothing or to adopt a policy of clothing choice being a protected privacy matter and barring schools from discussing a student’s clothing choices with their parents.

From the evidence I’ve seen, this policy is less about protecting the rights of girls and more about using that as a rationalization to marginalize Muslims.

Is that intended as a legal or moral position?

As far as I know, the law doesn’t care much if you make money off of IP violations. There are many cases of individuals getting hefty fines for both the personal use and free distribution of IP. I think if there is commercial use of IP the profits are forfeit to the IP holder. I’m not a lawyer though, so don’t bank on that.

There’s still the initial question too. At present, we let the courts decide if the usage, whether profitable or not, meets the standard of IP violation. Artists routinely take inspiration from one another and sometimes they take it too far. Why should we assume that AI automatically takes it too far and always meets the standard of IP violation?

Yes but there’s a threshold of how much you need to copy before it’s an IP violation.

Copying a single word is usually only enough if it’s a neologism.
Two matching words in a row usually isn’t enough either.
At some point it is enough though and it’s not clear what that point is.

On the other hand it can still be considered an IP violation if there are no exact word matches but it seems sufficiently similar.

Until now we’ve basically asked courts to step in and decide where the line should be on a case by case basis.

We never set the level of allowable copying to 0, we set it to “reasonable”. In theory it’s supposed to be at a level that’s sufficient to, “promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.” (US Constitution, Article I, Section 8, Clause 8).

Why is it that with AI we take the extreme position of thinking that an AI that makes use of any information from humans should automatically be considered to be in violation of IP law?

Every once in a while I really wish jamming devices were legal.

Slashing is overrated. They’re less likely to connect because they’re slower and easier to see (it’s easier for humans to detect movements across your vision than movement directly toward you). They also have less effect since the force is spread out over a larger area. Yes, you can generate huge forces in a swing if you really wind up and hit with just the right part of the weapon or tool but that haymaker is never going to connect against an opponent who’s still awake.

The big advantage of slashing is that it’s easier. It’s the simple dumb response when you had someone a heavy thing. It also often works better than just using your fist or dropping the weapon all together but it’s generally not the best way to use a weapon.

And yes, there are exceptions. Slashing with knives and one handed sticks can be extremely effective. But even with those, stabbing tends to be at least as effective and all these effects are exasperated with larger weapons. Just take a metal bar the size of big sword and swing it at a tree. Then see how many times you could poke that tree in the same time.

I get kind of annoyed at how non-black people are selectively included or excluded from “people of color”.
When someone is trying to sound inclusive, anyone who isn’t white is a “person of color”.
But the second we try to assert some rights we suddenly basically white people.

Nobody’s making me wear pants. I’ve worn garments similar to dresses and skirts and I’m not a fan at all.

This has been going on for much longer than Starlink.

There were a number of observatories built in or near cities. They became mostly useless once we figured out electric lights but we still use them for education sometimes.

SpaceX has been working with the NSF so they can continue to dim Starlink https://spacenews.com/nsf-and-spacex-reach-agreement-to-reduce-starlink-effects-on-astronomy/

Now we’re putting more and more observation capabilities deep into space. JWT is already getting images better than anything you could get on earth, even if you eliminated Starlink and turned off every light on the planet. Ground based astronomical observation is still relevant but we keep coming up with better alternatives.