Slashdot Mirror
Do You Own Your Native Language?
l2718 writes "In a new take on the reach of 'Intellectual Property,' the Mapuche Indians of Chile are accusing Microsoft of linguistic piracy. Their lawsuit alleges that Microsoft needed permission from the tribal elders before translating its software into Mapuzugun, a project which was co-ordinated with the Chilean Ministry of Education." From the CNN Money article: "The Mapuche took their case to a court in the southern city of Temuco earlier this month but a judge ruled it should be considered in Santiago. A judge in the capital is due to decide in the next two weeks whether Microsoft has a case to answer. 'If they rule against us we will go to the Supreme Court and if they rule against us there we will take our case to a court of human rights,' said Lautaro Loncon, a Mapuche activist and coordinator of the Indigenous Network, an umbrella group for several ethnic groups in Chile."
Be right back, about to file a language patent for "English"
Kllskjlf KJkJLFKJG L S jksldjl!! ; lkj flkjLk!: JF; kj
Can Jim Henson sue Google over their option to translate to Swedish Chef?
Bork bork bork!
Would you kindly mod me +1 insightful?
The actual name of the language is Mapudungun.
Clearly they got it wrong to avoid being dragged into court. You, on the other hand, have opened yourself to a lawsuit!
I, for one, WELCOME our new NgeMimbwa Overlords.
In Soviet Russia, the Language Manag'hwhabwa's YOU!
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
called "human female", please, please, PLEASE release it into the public domain so the rest of us can maybe hope to understand it!
Monstar L
Yeah, it looks like someone could claim ownership of l33t talk.
[Readies the knuckles]
And will therefore be responsible...
I, for one, welcome our new PERL overlords.
I am right, if you ignore all the inconvenient facts that make me wrong.
But nations are much more than just groups of people. They're groups of people with semi-arbitrary geopolitical borders.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
OK, well...
... hope that helps.
"lets just be friends" translates to "jump off a cliff and commit suicide"
"I seek a man who is kind with a big heart" translates to "I seek a man who is rich with a big wallet"
"can we talk" translates to "you're in deep shit and you're gonna get it"
"this is cute" translates to "give me the dough, now!"
"we feel..." translates to "I'm gonna make you feel..."
"marrage" translates to "on a tight leash"
Yu netives spek einglish bad. We estudients of einglish speik einglish best.
Can't Microsoft just rename the language option "Mooboo", then add a bunch of new words and grammatical constructs to the language? That's what they do with everything else.
You do not make a strong case for language ownership.
I put the 't' in electrical engineering.
Brings new meaning to free as in speech.
how many pairs of boxer shorts should you own?
The UK Language Ministry admitted in response to questioning that it was investigating the possibility that pirated copies of English may have been exported to the US, Canada and New Zealand in previous centuries. 'All we are interested in doing' said a spokesperson 'is making sure our citizens get the proper returns on their intellectual property' She went on to explain that the UK had devoted millions of man years of development into raising English to its present expressive levels from its Germanic, Anglo Saxon and Norman roots.
She agreed that what was probably needed was a test case to clarify the matter. 'We would pick some arbitrary person, like a mother in Kalamazoo, who has been observed and recorded teaching her child an illegally copied version of our language. Then we will sue the hell out of her. Win or lose, that will encourage others to pay proper royalties to the UK, and ensure that further development of our language can be properly funded'.
Slashdot users are already complaining about the US's excessively long copyright terms. Now you want to grant protection to language which are thousands of years old?