Quote:
Originally Posted by pdurrant
Especially as the Librarian of Congress has seen fit to make an explicit exception for ebooks which prevent read-aloud functionality.
It's the exception that proves the rule.
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Not always. Sometimes legal interpretations that already exist get codified anyway. Take, for example, the Castle Doctrine, relating to the common law right of self-defense without a duty to retreat in one's own home. Pretty much codified these days.
One reason for such codification is to prevent legal wrangling in the courts. In the case of read-aloud functionality, that was a practical need.
(Ever notice how the express "the exception proves the rule" is ambiguous? "Proves" can mean "tests," and my suspicion is that the expression mean that the existence of an exception shows that there isn't a rule in the first place.)