Re: [OT] Droit d'auteur vs. free software?
Scripsit Richard Braakman <dark@xs4all.nl>
> On Fri, May 02, 2003 at 05:48:23PM +0200, Henning Makholm wrote:
> > (Opposite in some other parts of the world where one can become
> > rich simply by being too stupid to imagine that coffee might be hot).
> 1. The coffee in question was *much* hotter than coffee is normally served.
Coffee is made by pouring *boiling water* through a medium of ground
roasted coffee beans. Yes, boiling water causes burns.
> 2. The lady in question didn't deliberately spill coffee over herself
> because she thought it wouldn't be hot.
No non-stupid person will hold a flimsy styrofoam cup between one's
*knees* while attempting to manipulate a tight-fitting lid, unless
they think that the liquid inside is not hot.
> 3. If the coffee had been at normal temperature,
The normal temperature of boiling water is 100 °C. See (1).
> 4. The corporation that served the coffee was aware that the temperature
> was a problem,
What the corporation thinks does not excuse being stupid. See (2).
> 5. All she initially asked for was enough money to pay for the medical
> bills.
I'll withhold my opinion about a country where having accidents
entails "medical bills" that one needs to extract from the innocent
provider of some agent that happened to be involved in the accident.
> The jury awarded punitive damages because they considered
> the corporation to be willfully putting its customers at risk.
Yet none of the "debunkers" offer any coherent explanation of why on
earth McDonalds would have the *will* to do so. It doesn't scan. But
then again I'm not buying into the common theory that McDonalds
*willfully* makes the "food" they sell taste like cardboard.
> The Association of Trial Lawyers of America has a page about the case:
Aren't they the ones who get rich by getting half of the spoils?
Naturally they'd conclude that nothing at all is wrong.
--
Henning Makholm "I've been staying out of family
conversations. Do I get credit for that?"
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