Z:gnu-www-ja-reevaluating-copyright--909a45-For example, we do not decide/en

For example, we do not decide whether to build a highway in New York City by analogy with a previous decision about a proposed highway in Iowa. In each highway construction decision, the same factors apply (cost, amount of traffic, taking of land or houses); if we made highway decisions by analogy to previous highway decisions, we would either build every proposed highway or none of them. Instead we judge each proposed highway based on the pros and cons, whose magnitudes vary from case to case. In copyright issues, too, we must weigh the cost and benefits for today's situation and today's media, not as they have applied to other media in the past.