Edward Felton has an interesting approach to overreaching-ad-absurdem copyright assertions — ask for exceptions.
Call them and ask for exceptions. Call WalMart and ask permission to tell your friends about their prices. (WalMart told FatWallet’s ISP that that’s infringement.) Call Turner Broadcasting and ask permission to fast-forward through the commercials in their shows. (Turner Broadcasting CEO Jamie Kellner told Cableworld that commercial skipping is illegal.) Call Adobe and ask permission to read their e-book of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to your kid. (One of Adobe’s licenses prohibited this.)
In a sense, this is sort of how common law works — by building up a set of precedents, you more reasonably define the boundaries of what particular uses are and are not prohibited. This helps counter one of the reasons why main reasons why these sorts of stupid assertions get put in place — the fear of “missing something” that will let IP get misused. In return, it can also help identify inconsistencies in policy that are helpful either to a company or to the court.
(via BoingBoing)