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#81053 09/18/02 08:45 AM
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One of my students in the post graduate design law classwhich I teach has sent me an abstract of their proposed paper, which contains the following -

<<Apart from the sophistry surrounding characterisation as a work of artistic craftsmanship, the existence of such a category introduces a de facto criteria of artistic achievement into judicial evaluation which obviates against the requirement that copyright protection should not be based on perceived artistic merit.

This paper recommends a normative shift from current statutory preoccupation with differentiating "art" or "craftsmanship" from "design" to an analysis of industrial purpose. It is suggested that the monopoly or protective tenure extended by copyright law becomes contentious where it subverts the legitimate manufacture of useful articles. It is through the mechanisms of mass market induction that a creative work may be seen to transcend the paradigm of artistic work.>>

Given that it is part of good legal style to write clearly and concisely, how should I respond bearing in mind that the rest of the abstract is in similar style?
jj




#81054 09/18/02 09:33 AM
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Given that it is part of good legal style to write clearly and concisely, how should I respond bearing in mind that the rest of the abstract is in similar style?

"Talk English, boy!" (or girl)

Actually I'm very impressed at the writer's ability to churn out so many grammatical sentences containing a good variety of words, and yet consistently evade any discernible meaning.

You could consider entering this for Pseud's Corner, JJ:

http://www.private-eye.co.uk/pseuds.htm

My favourite ever entry was someone writing about Leonard Cohen, included on the sleeve notes for one of his more recent albums. Must try to find that on the Web.




#81055 09/18/02 09:47 AM
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And I also meant to ask whether someone could point me to th index that I know exists for readability, being a mathematical function of number of words per sentence, syllables per word, use of non-anglosaxon words, etc. Now what is it called??
jj


#81056 09/18/02 09:59 AM
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didn't realise Private Eye was on the net. Glad to see its as funny as it used to be...


#81057 09/18/02 10:07 AM
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I think you should simply hit the writer in the face with a sock filled with wet mud. Preferably cold, wet mud, and stinky.


#81058 09/18/02 10:20 AM
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index that I know exists for readability

In MS Word there's a Flesch Reading score.

If the same people devised tests for the edibity of foods you'd have Flesch Eating scores.


#81059 09/18/02 10:33 AM
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Your mention of the Flesch score inspired me - here are the results of running it through WordPerfect's Grammar check readability analysis.
http://maxqnz.com/readability.html
I thought the last was particularly damning.


#81060 09/18/02 10:35 AM
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Flesch Reading score.

There's a couple others, too. Don't remember them offhand and this defective Mac Word won't show them to me.

It's not entirely, grammatical, BTW. Specifically: a de facto criteria? Word suggests either drop the a or change to a de facto criterion


#81061 09/18/02 10:42 AM
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>Word suggests either drop the a or change to a de facto criterion

WordPerfect suggested changing to criterion or replacing "a" with "some".


#81062 09/18/02 10:55 AM
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Ask him if he wishes to have it copyrighted as a work of artistic merit, or would he prefer to see it patented as being a useful article.




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