[hnfong]

It's not even the tech. The idea is fundamentally untenable.

I imagine the GP desiring something conceptually similar to a transparent plastic sheet where you can put over the original document and annotate it. But the plastic sheet annotation is meaningless unless the original document is freely available.

It's similar to any other kind of criticism. This comment is meaningless without reference to the context in the discussion thread.

> can't fix the law with tech.

I totally agree. The only reason why people might think the idea of "markup on top of, but separate from" copyrighted content is remotely possible is because the law allows fair use to some extent. Otherwise any annotation or criticism would be technically considered a derivative work. I'm often amazed how programmers and tech people in general, supposedly the type of people who would dive deep into pedantic details, so often assume their understanding of the law and the legal system is correct without even so much as a simple "hello world" unit test...