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Comment by L-four | Hacker News Reader

So a literal electric door lock would have the right to lock your door if they think you might break the copy right on the door lock you purchased from them.

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Sometimes analogies are a useful tool for understanding a situation.

This one is not.

Analogies are sometimes useful for understanding, but they rarely seem useful in marking an argument. It always seems redirect the argument into the ways that the analogy is different. (If the analogy weren't different, then it wouldn't be any clearer.)

If one goes into it with the intention of using the differences in the analogies to illuminate the domain, it can be helpful. But any argument of the form "X is like Y, and therefore since p(Y) is obvious then p(X) must also be true" is pretty much destined to shed little light but much heat.

I find an analogies useful in argument. They allow me to apply the logic someone is applying in an unfamiliar domain to a domain that is familiar to all, as a way of seeing how the logic holds up. Naturally, if the domains are too dissimilar, that becomes the focus of discussion. Like all tools, analogies can be used poorly.

An analogy is kind of like a car ... OK no. Not going there. I'm out.

You wouldn't download an analogy.

Went there just for you :)

If the laws about actual doors were written the same way as laws about copyright: yes.

Yep, I think the analogy would be better understood if it said they would stop the lock from functioning properly if the company had a suspicion that you were circumventing / reverse-engineering the lock.

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