Melchi
3 HN recommenders · recommended in 3 months, 2009–2012
9:58 · 63K views · Jan 24, 2009
Part one of Errol Morris's First Person interview with Murray Richman, a New York lawyer who defends mob figures. He talks about how he sees the law and his clients.
HN recommends it as the best interview of Morris's series and as an insight into how the law and ordinary people's minds work.
3 comments from Hacker News
Errol Morris interview with the "smartest man in the world." Part 1: [LINK] Part 2: [LINK] Part 3: [LINK] (Good interview, but the best one Errol Morris did with his tv series was the one with the mob lawyer. this video And the movie Fog of War, of course.)
I don't think you can really jump to that conclusion. Prior art may have been 'ignored' but I have a feeling that the question in the minds of the jurors was 'Did Samsung copy apple?' I think that what's probably more at issue is that the vast majority of the populace regards copying as plagiarism / and/or something that ought to be punished. eg. copying = theft = bad = you should pay a fine. The jurors are just trying to stitch legal words and technical words together to create the impression that it was judged based on the law rather than the emotional feeling that copying is bad. The jury was probably looking for evidence to find for Apple, not examining the evidence to reach a conclusion. It's a hallmark of trials by jury, it's why when the facts and emotions are on your side you pick a jury trial and when the law is on your side you pick a trial by judge. I've heard that at one point in the trial the samsung lawyer said that the design of their tablet was so different that it couldn't be copied while pointing to an iPad. A gaffe like that in connection with the idea that copying = bad is game over for Samsung in court. Errol Morris interviewed a mob lawyer about how he got a mobster off a murder charge, it's a very telling insight into how the average person's mind works. this video
If you have half an hour left watch the following video: this video Errol Morris interviews the notorious NYC lawyer Murray Richman. In the end you will realize, that it is all about the "asshole" factor and very little about actual laws.