Also not a lawyer but maybe more familiar with IP law than you are?

When an AI scrapes the post you just wrote… how exactly were you, the author of the post, harmed by that action? You weren’t harmed which is a powerful fair use defence. It’s not enough on it’s own, but it’s a huge step in that direction and other factors such as transforming the original add to that making a compelling case.

Consider the most recent fair use case, which was Google had negotiations to pay license fees for Java, then refused to pay — instead Google created a copy of Java. It dragged on in court a long time and bounced back and forth on apeal, but in the end the ruling came down to “java is protected by copyright, but Sun was not sufficiently harmed, therefore it was fair use”. Or at least that’s where it was headed when Oracle (who bought Sun years after the infringement happened) decided to stop burning mountains of cash fighting a lawsuit that wasn’t likely to end well for them.

I was somewhat surprised by that case - I felt the fact that Google had talks about paying, then decided not to pay, was pretty clear harm. But the judge didn’t see that as real harm - Java’s source code is not ‘free as in freedom’ but it is ‘free as in dollars’ to download and therefore not really properly protected by copyright. The fact the license added restrictions to what you can do with the copy you were given for free didn’t hold up in court (which has pretty widespread ramifications for GPL… I wonder who will be brave enough to test that in court… the FSF isn’t going to back down from a lawsuit like Oracle did).

Anyway, if Java is borderline, I think the fediverse is clear cut. Almost any copy of the fediverse would be fair use. Yes, it’s technically copyrighted content, but there’s a loophole so big it surrounds the entire universe.

Have you ever tried to fit a tall motorcycle in a van? A KTM for example?

I have - it’s a pain in the ass. For example you have to remove the front wheel or it won’t fit under the roof, then figure out some way to securely attach the front to some sort of skateboard so it will roll in.

With a utility you can just roll it in straight in. Doesn’t matter if it sticks up a metre over the cab.

Also, I wouldn’t want to drive a van down this road, which happens to be the best place near me to ride a KTM (and I need a car to take food/fuel/beer/etc to the base camp) https://youtube.com/watch?v=7cOSuutfshY

The F-650 weight limit is 50,000lbs (including trailer) off the factory floor.

However it’s common to spend a hundred grand on modifications, and those can easily include suspension and braking upgrades which would allow higher weight limits (especially trailer weight, where almost none of the weight is actually on the truck itself).

If you need to tow a crane or something like that, this is a perfect truck to use as a starting point. It’s small enough to drive off the highway to job sites in residential/etc areas, but capable enough (especially modified) to handle loads that would normally require a full size truck I that can’t possibly be reversed between two houses to get the crane into someone’s back yard where you need it.

Europe has trucks like this too. They just aren’t from a culturally popular brand like Ford.