Lambda the Ultimate

I don't want to start a discussion here about the merits of the copyright schemes advocated by the Associated Press, but this may be a nice example of syntax vs. semantics and what semantics are in the real world...

Felten remarks: hNews does include a "rights" field that can be attached to an article, but the rights field uses ccREL, the Creative Commons Rights Expression Language, whose definition states unequivocally that it does not limit users' rights already granted by copyright and can only convey further rights to the user.

Where does ccREL state that? It is, of course, not part of the "statements" of ccREL per se, i.e., the syntax of ccREL clauses. It is part of the definition of ccREL, i.e., the intended semantics of ccREL statements. But clearly, if you think of ccREL (or language, more generally) as just a handy syntax specification, you may end up unconsciously ignoring the intended semantics...

I have no idea if this is actually what happened in this case, of course.