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Egypt to Copyright Pyramids and Sphynx
empaler writes "We all know the usual pro-copyright arguments. Most of them hinge on the fact that the individual or company that has a copyright needs an incentive to make something that is copyrightable, and therefore ensure a revenue stream in a period after the copyright has been granted. In a never-surpassed move, Egypt is working on legislation to extend copyright well above 3000 years — they are going to start claiming royalties for using likenesses of the Sphynx and the Pyramids. It is still unclear whether the original intent of the Pyramids included 'making sure them bastards pay for a plastic copy in 3000 years' alongside 'securing a pathway to the heavens for the God King.' Speaking as a Greenlandic national, I want dibs on ice cubes." It sounds straight out of The Onion, but instead you can read another story on the BBC.
Rob "CmdrTaco" Malda is a 29-year old white male with a stocky build and a goatee. He responded to my ad to be interviewed for this article wearing only leather pants, leather boots and a leather vest. I could see that both of his nipples were pierced with large-gauge silver rings.
Questioner: I hope you won't be offended if I ask you to prove to me that you're a nullo. Just so that my readers will know that this isn't a fake.
CmdrTaco: Sure, no problem. (stands and unbuckles pants and drops them to his ankles, revealing a smooth, shaven crotch with only a thin scar to show where his genitals once were).
Q: Thank you. That's a remarkable sight.
(laughs and pulls pants back up). Most people think so.
Q: What made you decide to become a nullo?
(pauses). Well, it really wasn't entirely my decision.
Q: Excuse me?
The idea wasn't mine. It was my lover's idea.
Q: Please explain what you mean.
Okay, it's a long story. You have to understand my relationship with Hemos before you'll know what happened.
Q: We have plenty of time. Please go on.
Both of us were into the leather lifestyle when we met through a personal ad. Hemos's ad was very specific: he was looking for someone to completely dominate and modify to his pleasure. In other word, a slave.
The ad intrigued me. I had been in a number of B&D scenes and also some S&M, but I found them unsatisfying because they were all temporary. After the fun was over, everybody went on with life as usual.
I was looking for a complete life change. I wanted to meet someone who would be part of my life forever. Someone who would control me and change me at his whim.
Q: In other words, you're a true masochist.
Oh yes, no doubt about that. I've always been totally passive in my sexual relationships.
Anyway, we met and there was instant chemistry. Hemos is about my age and is a complete loser. Our personalities meshed totally. He's very dominant.
I went back to his place after drinks and had the best sex of my life. That's when I knew I was going to be with Hemos for a long, long time.
Q: What sort of things did you two do?
It was very heavy right away. He restrained me and whipped me for quite awhile. He put clamps on my nipples and a ball gag in my mouth. And he hung a ball bag on my sack with some very heavy weights. That bag really bounced around when Hemos fucked me from behind.
Q: Ouch.
(laughs) Yeah, no kidding. At first I didn't think I could take the pain, but Hemos worked me through it and after awhile I was flying. I was sorry when it was over.
Hemos enjoyed it as much as I did. Afterwards he talked about what kind of a commitment I'd have to make if I wanted to stay with him.
Q: What did he say exactly?
Well, besides agreeing to be his slave in every way, I'd have to be ready to be modified. To have my body modified.
Q: Did he explain what he meant by that?
Not specifically, but I got the general idea. I guessed that something like castration might be part of it.
Q: How did that make you feel?
(laughs) I think it would make any guy a little hesitant.
Q: But it didn't stop you from agreeing to Hemos's terms?
No it didn't. I was totally hooked on this man. I knew that I was willing to pay any price to be with him.
Anyway, a few days later I moved in with Hemos. He gave me the rules right away: I'd have to be naked at all times while we were indoors, except for a leather dog collar that I could never take off. I had to keep my balls shaved. And I had to wear a butt plug except when I needed to take a shit or when we were having sex.
I had to sleep on the floor next to his bed. I ate all my food on the floor, too.
The next day he took me to a piercing parlor where he had my nipples done, and a Prince Albert put into the head of my cock.
Q: Heavy stuff.
Yeah, and it got heavier. He used me as a toilet, pissing in my mouth. I had to
/_\
Can't stop me from making pyramids!
Ice cubes? We have prior art on that.
-- Canada
Perhaps I'm really bad at writing summaries, but I posted this same story on Firehose almost an hour before this one even came up.
How much are the royalties going to be for each dollar bill in circulation?
Airplane Photos, Airline News, Planespotting Guides
What will they call it? The Sun God Bono Copyright Term Extension Act?
The EU is big on protecting regional designations. Copyright is obviously the wrong approach (especially in a forum where no one believes in IP).
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
There goes my plans to get rich quickly by making copies of pyramids and sphinxes and selling them on the street for way lower than the original pyramid and sphinx.
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
Outside this frigid tumble-down shack, dry leaves before the wild winter hurricane fly. Here within, at the corner by the cold hearth rests an empty stool. A crutch without a master stands perched against the wall. These forlorn and lonely objects serve as mute reminders of their deceased owner, *BSD.
This crutch and vacant stool have become orphans, not unlike the now dead *BSD. No longer will *BSD hobble about on its cripple's crutch. Like the empty hearth, and the vacant stool, *BSD lies cold and still. *BSD's corpse, lifeless beneath frozen earth and December snows, will see no more Christmas cheer. No, there will be no Christmas ever again for *BSD, for *BSD is dead.
Goodbye, *BSD. The pain of life forever stilled, sleep for all eternity in that long winter's nap. Fade gently into Earth's frozen bosom where in dreams even cripples walk and blind men see.
..and the rest of us can choose to ignore their absurdity.
I want to make a point.. But.. how the fuck can I make an mp3 of the Sphinx?
--- We need more Ron Paul!
This is how people start thinking when their old business model starts falling into pieces. Fewer and fewer people go to Egypt to see the pyramids, it is really not a surprise. Why not go to see the artificial islands in the United Arab Emirates instead? After all it should be safer and these 'wonders' are newer. It really is a more tourist friendly attraction for those going to the Middle East anyway.
But this will not work, sure Egypt can come up with whatever ideas they want but who is going to care?
You can't handle the truth.
not to i believe international countries will actually follow this, but it does make you wonder whether or not such a length of time would be constitutional, since IP has to lapse into PD at some point. however why would the current system which typically lasts well over 100 years be any more constitutional since most people never live to be that age, hence for the typical person, IP created in their lifetime won't lapse into PD.
Twice half the value of every dollar printed; adjusted for 3% inflation and the fact that the dollar is no longer backed by gold... I'd say we're going to be using our currency to start fires in our fireplaces when that becomes cheaper than buying wood to light the same fire.
If I mod you up, it doesn't necessarily mean I agree with what you've said, sorry.
This is only fair if the royalties are paid to whoever is buried in the pyramids. I'm sure they could put those royalties to good use in the afterlife.
Seek and ye shall find.
They built the damn things after all. Or did the Pharoahing industry associates of egypt file the pyramids as works for hire...
A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
So I call dibs on the copyrights for dairies, corn farming, and near year-round sun.
The movie "Stargate" had a lot of Egyptian-themed design. Does the Egyptian Government expect them to pay too? Many countries have art theme imitated throughout the word; Japan, China, Greece, Italy.
Egyptian Government is making a greedy grab for cash. Nothing more. Since the copyright term has long since expired and copyright didn't even exist then, they'll do nothing but make themselves look like greedy petulant fools. They'll make Egypt a laughing stock, and if they don't watch out Sasha Cohen might launch a new Egyptian character to replace the recently deceased Borat.
Outside this frigid tumble-down shack, dry leaves before the wild winter hurricane fly. Here within, at the corner by the cold hearth rests an empty stool. A crutch without a master stands perched against the wall. These forlorn and lonely objects serve as mute reminders of their dead owner, *BSD.
This crutch and vacant stool have become orphans, not unlike the now dead *BSD. No longer will *BSD hobble about on its cripple's crutch. Like the empty hearth, and the vacant stool, *BSD lies cold and still. *BSD's corpse, lifeless beneath frozen earth and December snows, will see no more Christmas cheer. No, there will be no Christmas ever again for *BSD, for *BSD is dead.
Goodbye, *BSD. The pain of life forever stilled, sleep for all eternity in that long winter's nap. Fade gently into Earth's frozen bosom where in dreams even cripples walk and blind men see.
...that they will ry and sue the Incas?
If taxation is legalized theft, then Capitalism is a prolonged rape followed by a slow death.
Isn't copyrighting a geometrical figure about the same as copyrighting a number? How exactly do they plan to go about doing this?
That's pretty astounding arrogance right there. Since when do one country's laws apply anywhere outside their borders? Not to mention that they have no right to try to "copyright" stuff that was made 3000 years ago, by people long-since dead.
"16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
As long as we are copyrighting aspects of human culture, I'm going to see about getting a copyright on breathing air and wearing clothes.
Start saving up your money people, I'm going to charge royalties per the hour (retroactive of course)!
The international community as well as vast majority of industrialized countries do not recognize copyright longer than author's life + 100 years (in most cases it's 50 or 70). Yes, there is _some_ movement in the US to make copyright indefinite, but (at least for now) it is not close to becoming law.
Use in other countries will be governed by local laws, regardless of whether Egypt likes it or not. The only industry they are going to screw is their own domestic one. And it might, depending on how broadly the law is interpreted, seriously hamper private domestic industry that is heavily focused on promoting those tourist attractions.
Sound's like a 21th-century approach to implementing socialism. Why overthrow it when you can just tax it to death?
a total pyramid scheme...
Distributed proteome folding @ WorldCommunityGrid.org
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...make a donation to the PFF (Pyramid Frontier Foundation). Fair use applies to pyramids too, because Ra said so!
Egypt doesn't have the power to enforce copyright laws in other countries, but since international copyright is enforced via international treaties, it can take the following stance: "Respect our terms of copyright or we won't respect yours".
For example, the U.S. might reject Egypt's indefinite copyright claim, but Egypt can in retaliation refuse to recognize or enforce US copyright on its territory, essentially legitimazing piracy of any US copyrighted property (including, of course, software).
A sphynx is a type of hairless cat from North America. The correct spelling for the Egyptian thing is Sphinx. It's even spelled correctly in the linked-to article!
Don't worry! I have a way to stop this!! I'll simply copyright limestone.
What's next? Is Germany going to "copyright" the swastika, so they can cash in on WW-II flicks?
Modern day Egypt has little or nothing to do with those images, other than being the land mass upon which they sit. It's like they want to be an international laughing stock.
As an American, I deem that we have international "copyright" on that, and they owe us royalties. I knew we were outsourcing our interrogations to Egypt. I had no idea the ties ran so deeply.
Utter lunacy, if it's at all true.
--
Toro
To make this work for them here in the United States, we only need to make three little changes to our constitution.
First get rid of that silly "limited times" part. That might mess up their plans a little.
Then we need to append "and unrelated asshats" to the "authors and inventors" part.
And third, we need to add something to overturn those activist judges that say that once something goes into the public domain, it can't be copyrighted.
No problem.
I guess if they make problems, Egypt will just send in Spain to break up the place, again.
I'm gonna go build my own monuments ... with blackjack ... and hookers!
Adapt, adopt, or get out of the way!
ok thats a bad ideal i mean where do you draw the line? i say the us project electricity now haha
lolikun.org
In Stargate and Stargate SG1 the Pyramids are space ships.
And they have not been seen in SGA yet.
The pyramids where the parking space for the ships in SG1
If taxation is legalized theft, then Capitalism is a prolonged rape followed by a slow death.
When my girlfriend was in Cairo a couple of years ago she saw many, many places selling burned CDs and DVDs, all underground, of course. While Egypt is probably not on the radar of the RIAA/MPAA, there is plenty of pirating that indicates U.S. copyright isn't respected now, nothing will materially change if Egypt announces they will not honor American copyrights in their country.
The original owners were the pharaoh era royalty. The present government does not derive directly from the royal line. Therefore to claim ownership rights on property not rightfully theirs is to deprive the original owners of their ownership.
It's stealing. Lock the bastards up. Call the PIAA (Pyramid Industry Association of Assholes).
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
Lets see, the blacks in the USA claimed that they are due reparations for 250 years of slavery. Then us Jews want reparations for 4000 years of slavery plus interest for 3000 years.
Of course as slaves we were not free to turn over our copyright rights, therefore us Jews still hold on to those rights. Us Jews welcome the Egyptians collecting our royalties for us, as long as it is distributed to us Jews.
Fight Spammers!
this can only mean 1 thing. disney's next big character will be a pyrimid.
Vatican to copyright God, film at 11.
Scruting the inscrutable for over 50 years.
>When my girlfriend was in Cairo a couple of years ago she saw many, many places selling burned CDs and DVDs, all underground, of course.
Is it any different in the USA? The underground market is just that, underground. Different governments can apply different levels of pressure to try and enforce the law, which would depend on how willing they are to enforce it as well as budget, legal, and political popularity concerns, but tracking individual sellers of pirated CDs can be very hard both in Egypt and the US, and you can (illegally) buy a pirated CD for pennies on the dollar in both places. As with any other goods. The US has invested billions (trillions?) in its war against drugs, and they are still widely available in any urban center.
It's different from not being able to control an illegal business, or even to not adequately invest in its control, as opposed to officially declare that the business isn't illegal or that the government isn't even going to try or pretend they try to enforce it.
I presume this is a larger, bolder version of the City of Hollywood (California) successfully copyrighting and restricting use of the image of the iconic "HOLLYWOOD" sign on the hills above the city. But I also think it's going to be just a mite harder to enforce...
Until the Egyptians can show me a pyramid with a huge, disembodied eye floating over it that's been there for 3000-ish years.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
At first blush, this seems absurd, but once you think about it, it really isn't very different from what copyright (and IP in general) has become in recent decades. Disney, for example, is voting themselves eternal copyrights over their stuff, much of which is derivative. I think it's only a matter of time before each culture decides to lay claim to their corpus of work, from the beginning of time. It'd be an interesting battle, as arguably the creators of the English language contributed more to The Little Mermaid than Disney did...
"Not an actor, but he plays one on TV."
I've got no problem with this, as long as the proceeds go to pay reparations to Jews and other descendants of the Pharaohs' slaves. Forty camels and a condo in Acre might be a good start.
Expect the RIAA to petition the government to either recognize Egypt's copyrights, or invade the country, and declare the antiquities as part of the RIAA's owned works. (After all, there is a copyrighted song about an Egyptian.)
In related news, Apple is concerned about a copyright claim from Adam, Jr, Jr, Jr, Jr, Jr, Jr, Jr, Jr, Jr, Jr, Jr, Jr... Likewise, there is already a copyrighted song about Adam and Eve.
They also had pyramid ships
http://gateworld.net/omnipedia/ships/p/pyramidship.shtml
...and I own the copyright to the letter "e" and the words "prior art". You bastrads better pay up and don't even think about arguing for prior art - I owe that term!
Well, there goes the Luxor. Huge copyright violation prominently displayed on the Las Vegas Strip!
The game.
Reminds me of the time I got a nice letter from California telling me that the use of the Hollywood sign in a video required royalties.
I suppose all those pictures of lights in NY Times Square and Las Vegas fall into the same category.
While I generally support IP and copyright, pushing it to these kinds of limits cause me to wonder where to draw a reasonable line.
slashdot troll = you make a compelling argument I do not like the implications of.
Now when they make epic movies, the pyramids will be giant cubes.
By the way, do the relatives of the guy who blew the nose off of Sphinx with a cannon also get royalties?
Table-ized A.I.
Unless there's a giant "Made in China" stamped on the bottom of the pyramids or they contain significant levels of lead, whatever is made won't be an "exact" copy. One could bypass this in any number of ways: change the ratio of the dimensions ever so slightly, change the color, and so forth.
-- Fugacity: Confusing chemists since 1908
Egypt is not copyrighting the pyramids. They are copyrighting exact replicas of any Egyptian monument.
From tfa
Nevada wants to patent prostitution as a "business method".
Table-ized A.I.
Someone copyright squares and circles too!!!
Then tell them, "Copyright THIS, mofos!"
Or nuke 'em from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
^
/ \
/ \
__________
sue me!
"Steve Jobs invented the world" -- Bill W. GATES
At first i figured the same as many of you.. what an intensely idiotical idea. But then i thought about the international uproar if well known landmarks like this of a cultural signifigance around the world were not protected and left to further deteriorate in the supposedly increasingly toxic environment and no research funded into the protection and origins etc etc etc I have no idea of the numbers and money involved.. but I'm guessing the Egyptian government has to pay for this somehow, and im sure tourism alone would cover the large majority of the costs, and you could argue its in their own self interests to protect their own "asset" and keep the tourists pouring in.. But I'm sure most people will agree they have a responsibility to "us", by that i mean the global community, to make sure they are protected, maintained and researched Maybe copyright isnt the best angle to be going at it, but surely if we expect the egyptian government to maintain these sorts of sites while other people continue to earn a profit off images of it and so on.. surely there has to be some part that goes to its preservation? Just my idle musings tho.. i dont know any details of how its already preserved and paid for and so on but would be interested to find out.
They fell into the public domain thousands of years before extension legislation, and there was no attempts at protecting the copyright in all those thousands of years of non-enforcement of copyright/trademark/ip.
Egypt looses copyright claim.
Perhaps they could call the 09 F9 11 02 9D 41 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 guys and ask them?
It was called the DMCA, and contained provisions to extend copyright indefinitely (even though nobody seems to realize it.)
See, legally the copyright expires, of course. But technically it doesn't. If a copyright holder places "technological measures" to prevent someone from copying/accessing a work, then as long as the measures continue to function, you are legally prevented from using the material once is has entered the public domain, because the "technological measures" are given force of law.
When visiting Giza, I was told by my hired Egyptologist that Egyptian authorities believed all artifacts of ancient Egypt were the rightful property of the Egyptians. As their national treasure and a grand source of revenue, they wish to keep a monopoly on Ancient Egypt. The basis of that argument is in regard to intellectual property, as well as physical.
Apparently, the Egyptian Museum won't loan anything to a museum that claims ownership over any of "their" artifacts foreign or domestic. Their argument being that they were robbed, either by simple theft, or by foreign invading forces.
Personally, my belief is that although the Egyptians may have some right to claim ownership, it is in the better interest of the world to spread knowledge and education of Ancient Egypt. Rather than allow Egypt an unlimited monopoly on their history, history should be available to all with independent and unbiased opinions based on uncensored access to factual record.
Unfortunately, it is also my opinion, from personal observation, that the conditions of the Egyptian Museum may not be the most suitable place for these priceless artifacts of history, and... fair or unfair, for the benefit of preservation, it may be best that Egyptians have not succeeded in re-obtaining all "their" artifacts.
The modern nation of Egypt has no IP claim over something made 5000 years ago by slaves.
------ The best brain training is now totally free : )
And that's the sad fact that out of 112 comments that have appeared up to the time I write this one, I only saw 1 that looks like the author RTFA first.
The proposed law only covers exact replicas of Egyptian monuments, it does not cover the general geographic shape of a sphinx or a pyramid. It also only covers commercial use. If I make a Play-Doh replica and use it as a candle holder on my own bookcase, that isn't commercial use. And finally, the monies generated will go for the preservation of those monuments.
"Copyright" is probably the wrong term for them to use. "Licensing" would have been more correct. But other than that, I fail to see what's wrong here. If you are making money by creating an exact replica of an Egyptian monument and using it commercially, I don't see anything at all wrong with you also being expected to help preserve that monument.
I guess none of you in the US are aware of facts like if I photograph your house and use that photo commercially, in most situations (advertising would be a prime example) I have to have your permission to do it, and you can charge me money for it. And it doesn't matter if your house is one day old or one thousand years old.
I want a new quote. One that won't spill. One that don't cost too much. Or come in a pill.
I have an idea. Egypt wants to copyright the pyramids? Fine. There's a wall in Israel that people go up to and pray. Israel copyrights the wall. Anyone who wants to build a wall from now on will have to pay royalties. If you build a house, you'll have to pay Israel royalties for each wall, and come to think of it, since the roof of a house does somewhat resemble a pyramid with its pointy structure, you'll have to pay Egypt, too.
Anyone know if there is a copyright on sand?
I just wasted half an hour looking for the punch line. Not really, in fact there were some good comments. Pretty hard to understand what exactly the Egyptians are trying to do here.
The Tea Party is just the GOP with a bag over its head.
In context, it appears you do not intend to make sense.
This is sheer madness. I hope US copyright law does not recognize it, given that its 70 years after the building of the structures. Does anyone know about this? IMHO a lot of IP is simply well connected people and governments charging people for the right to use an idea. And that concept is evil. Knowledge ought to be free. I think we need to start up an organization to lobby against IP and get congress to reform it.
Hmm, all the regular news staff are on leave and the editors are pulling stories out of their bottom drawers to fill newsprint. We used to call it 'cucumber time' - don't know why, but it does feel like a good description for this time of year.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
...believe in IP? It's BS power grabs like this by IP power holders that make it hard to believe that intellectual property laws aren't arbitrary, capricious, and screw people over... How can someone believe that IP is good and right when companies (and governments, in this case) keep pulling this shite over and over again? Is it really any wonder that people feel no guilt when they have no rights or say in the stuff they actually PAID MONEY to use? No other industry would ever get away with the BS that the IP industry demands... Yet, the industry always feel "wronged" by society... Whatever...
Thanks,
Mike
So more people go to the Luxor hotel in Vegas - than the "real Luxor" - and this has the Egyptians miffed? As if the real reason people go to Vegas's version is for the Big Glass Pyramid???
:roll eyes: Maybe Vegas should copyright gambling, booze and hookers?
Does the "real Luxor" provide 24 hour gambling, free liquor and round the clock hottie hookers - by the pair? I'm guessing photos of >>those aren't in the nightstand catalog in the 'real Luxor".
And guests of the Luxor Hotel in Vegas sin in the Islamic Brotherhood-free security of Nevada.
Ridiculous.
.Robert
Otherwise, once these ideas have been used in a movie, it's Disney's intellectual propery now. For example, Polar Lights had to rename their reissue of a 1960's Aurora model of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. http://www.imdb.com/news/sb/2000-01-27 (scroll down)
Well, anyone who has seen enough of Zahi Hawass knows that he is full of astounding arrogance. So no surprise there.
Actually, it *has* happened before. About 20 years ago the art world was rocked by the fact that Nippon Television (NTT) basically bought the rights to photograph the Sistine ceiling in exchange for funding the restoration of it.
C|N>K
think about pizza from Italy. Did italy sue corporates in America for selling pizza? what about kimchi from Korea? did Koreans sue Japanese and chinese restaurant owners for selling and serving kimchi and pronounce it differently? unless, in a such case: Japanese pronounce "m" sound as "meu". so they decided to steal "kimchi" as if it was from Japan by calling it "kimuchi". it is natural way to Japanese to pronounce 'm',as "meu". Japanese are actually fighting back claiming that they had it all along. but who cares? everybody knows this came from Korea. what do you think of when you think about 'pizza'. i would think 'pizza hut' right away, even if i don't like their pizza. and pizza hut is very american. but do someone claim that pizza came from America? no. did pyramid exist only in egypt? it may have existed there for long time and the size is incomparable. but there are many other cultures that had pyramids. pyramids in egypt is only monumental because it is very old and big. no one will claim that egyptian pyramids came from Tokyo or something, unless you are a japanese CEO of Sony or some other war criminals in japan.
Or is it more funny that he is from Greenland?
This seems to be a law aimed at those who create fake copies of historical artifacts. If you buy a copy of an Egyptian vase in a store, it will just have to be visibly marked as a copy. This should help prosecute the flow of illegal antiquities exports, and con artists who sell fake "originals". There's a big problem in middle eastern countries with people stealing antiquities and selling them to unscrupulous dealers abroad.
I'm not certain how this new law would apply around the world, but most western countries do cooperate in cases of art related crimes already, so it should be enough for the Egyptians to explicitly forbid unauthorized exact copies of their artworks, then they can ask local police to intervene on their behalf against corrupt art dealers.
This is how people start thinking when their old business model starts falling into pieces. Fewer and fewer people go to Egypt to see the pyramids
Egypt and SCO have teamed up, and claim that Linux contains copyrighted ancient hieroglyphs.
Table-ized A.I.
How did I know without looking, that Zahi Hawass would be the brain behind this idea?
That guy, a political appointee archaeological hack, has set the science back 75 years and has done immeasurable damage.
Until he dies, you will never see any Egyptian antiquity not connected to him.
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
Perhaps this will be the one thing that finally gets through to people showing how absurd copyright extension is. I mean, look at Disney! He nicked half of it from public domain -- it should return to public domain. He'll still have his theme parks, his ice cream bars!
Windows has detected an undetectable error.
It is entirely possible that they don't give a mummified rat's ass about preserving rightst for the pyramids outside Egypt. This might be just another way to make sure anyone cashing in on the pyramids to sell tinkets and junk to tourists gives a cut to the government.
Or, perhaps this is going to be used like a submarine patent: They let people using the images just slide by until they want to cash in or cause someone grief. I somehow imagine that the money that Egypt makes off ouf tourisim is probably a lot greater than the money that say, the Luxor makes off of being shaped like a pyramid.
Im guessing that this is a strategic move.
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
A pyramid is a geometrical figure, but they are copywriting 'The Pyramids, one of the wonders of the ancient world where pharos were buried', and not the geometrical figure. This is about the same as saying you can't copywrite the Death Star, because it is basically a sphere. There is a lot more to both than just their physical shape.
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
>We all know the usual pro-copyright arguments. Most of them hinge on the fact that
>the individual or company that has a copyright needs an incentive to make something
>that is copyrightable
I thought that the basis of copyright comes from a recognition of "The inalienable rights of Life, Liberty and Property," as the original wording goes. Copyright naturally follows from the right to property.
There's a need for a reform of our patent system, and probably some limitations on the duration of intellectual property; however, I don't think any reasonable person can dispute the legitimacy of copyright in principle.
Of course, there are some people who object to personal property all together. Communism and socialism are not dead ideas, even if they don't take center stage anymore. However, I think that history has proven that any society that rejects the right to property, but holds all things as property of the state also inevitably rejects the right to life and liberty, and that no individual in such a society can call himself free.
After all, our property constitutes our physical selves, and the extensions to our physical selves necessary to our identity, thus without a right to property we cannot have any right to life. If this is unclear, let me make it clear with an example. If we have no personal property, we logically do not own our internal organs, but possess them in common with the rest of society. Thus, the state would have the right to extract our organs for the benefit of others without our consent if it was deemed in the interest of the state.
Additionally, if we have no right to property, our liberty has no domain to exercise itself over. After all, how can we exercise our liberty if everything in the world belongs to the state, and exists solely for the benefit of the state? The exercise of liberty implies that we act on the world in a way determined by ourselves and directed towards whatever end we so desire, even selfish ends. This is not compatible with a world where we have no legal right to act on anything in a way contrary to the desires of the majority or of the state.
I think that for these reasons social views that do not allow for some basic right to personal property cannot be called ideologically sound or proscriptive of a free society. I think that when taking on patent and copyright reform we need to keep in mind that while the copyright and personal property rights may need to be limited in some ways, the basic right to property and to control copies of our works should be considered unassailable.
The reason people don't want to visit the US:
- presumption of being a criminal: get your fingerprints taken at the border, get inspected by idiots in the name of security every hour, get to take your bloody *shoes* off whenever you want to board a plane. Get real. None of that stuff stops terrorism. It does however, stop *tourism*.
- no protection by the law: as a foreigner you are not protected by any american laws. The constitution doesn't apply to you. The authorities can do with you whatever they want, for any reason they feel like. You could be sitting on a beach one moment and being beaten up in Guantanamo Bay the next, and noone would care.
- lawsuits. Get involved in any kind of accident, and american lawyers will bleed you dry. You might not even be able to go back to your own country.
Is any of this true? Well, it really doesn't matter now does it? As long as people like me perceive these risks to be true we won't visit. And there plenty of other places in the world to go to.
Things get even more interesting if you are arabic-looking, or if you have done anything that american law does not approve of (even if it was legal in the country where the act was committed!). In either case, the risk of going to the US increases considerably.
Since the shape is really what they are trying after and since none of them can claim inheritance of the Pyramids, I claim dibs on the wheel. One of my ancestors came up with the idea, but of course, 5,000 years ago they didn't have copyright options either. So now, I want some money from everyone that makes anything related to shape or function of a wheel.
jsut athnoer menagiensls ltitle psrhae for you to dcoede. Why do we wtsae our tmie dnoig tihs?
Either:
- Other countries will ignore it, or
- Other countries will enforce it -- which I doubt, or
- It will force a re-evaluation of the Berne convention.
I hope that it is the last option, the Berne convention has been abused by the likes of Disney which has bought votes in the USA senate/... to extend copyright in the USA and thus giving it the ability to milk the rest of the world for things that should have fallen out of copyright, like Steamboat WillieSorry, Mate!
;-)
No Chance to copyright icecubes from Greenland.
The icelanders are already selling icecubes from their glaciers
As a reply, the Israeli government decided to copyright monotheism
[shameless plug] Besides, they just released version 7.0, check it out.[/shameless plug]
In Soviet Russia, our new overlords are belong to all your base.
Hey, is air copyrighted already ?
Yes, Romans are ahead of Egyptians...
In Italy we already have a law that force you to pay if you want to take a picture of any national monument (like the Colosseum) and use it for commercial use. And it's not limited in any way by the age of the creation.
The fact that the law is not strictly enforced doesn't mean it not exists. As most of italian laws, it will be there, silent, until someone decides to apply you a fine or, worst, to stop your video production, or shut down your web site (with methods similar to Chinese).
Obviously it's more easy to apply the law in the country of origin, so Italians producers of books, websites, etc, usually pay the royalties to the Italian Ministry of Arts or simply removes the pictures (like the Italian edition of Wikipedia).
Egyptians... amateurs.
...we stop foreign aid.
Seems fair. No sense in letting them have their cake and eat it too.
668: Neighbour of the Beast
Copyright doesn't make sense and probably won't be enforceable abroad.
The usual thing to do in these cases is to get a trademark; they might be able to obtain and enforce that internationally.
All that effort wasted.
Deleted
In other news, visits to the Pyramids and Sphinx are down substantially as their images are no longer displayed in popular media. Causes for this apparent lack of interest in ancient Egypt confuse the Egyptian tourism board...
Just when I thought the human race had slid about as far down on the absurdity scale as they could, something like this comes along and proves me wrong. This is along the lines as someone claiming IP on breathing.
"I bow to no man" - Riddick
Will they try to sue Steve Martin?
I am officially gone from
I'm usually a big copyright supporter -- not because of all the financial incentive business but because copyright simply recognizes the uncontestable fact that the person who writes something owns that thing and all rights inherent in it and that others have none of those rights unless they are transferred to them -- but Egypt is making a bogus claim. Good luck collecting those fees.
-- Slashdot: When Public Access TV Says "No"
"Nice beaver!"
"Thanks, I just had it stuffed"
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
Especially given that regional designator law is more like trademark law. In this case, Egypt could get a trademark on GIZA for pyramid reproductions in each major developed market. This confusion between trademarks and copyrights among laypeople is one of the reasons why Mr. Stallman don't like the use of "intellectual property" in the mass media.
...pyramid spirituality has suffered a rapid decline, offset by the sudden increase in Trapezoid Spirituality, purported to have greater healing effects - at half price!
Furthermore, the Egyptian government has shelved plans to sue the estate of Blaise Pascal after deciding that his triangle for expanding binomials was "not pyramid-y enough" to pursue further legal action.
Oh wait, you don't recognize the existence of Hebrews.
Good luck with that one.
According to the article, it applies only to 'exact copies' of their stuff. In theory, as long as you changed some teeny detail (like, say, give the Sphinx a nice rack), they couldn't pursue you, right? ... and since these are decaying structures, (i.e. Sphinx's Nose), if you were to 're-imagine' these images as they must have existed in antiquity, then they couldn't do anything to you that way either because it's not an exact replica because you gave the sphinx an intact Nose, and they can't prove otherwise. ... Yeah, I don't see this copyright getting enforced a lot unless someone got the crazy idea to build a new pile of rocks.
Dear Sir,
I have discovered that I am the closest living descendant of the Fourth Dynasty of Egyptian Pharoahs, including Khufu, Khafra and Menkaure. As you may be aware the Egyptian Government has copyrighted the design of the pyramids, claiming royalties in the name of the government. As the direct physical descendant of these Kings, I believe that I should inherit the exclusive copyright royalties....
The sum lodged in the Central Bank of Egypt is £200,000,000 (TWO HUNDRED MILLION POUNDS) and in exchange for your support of my legal action....
Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
Karma: Chameleon
It{s not as crazy as it sounds. For example the image of Mexican Guadalupe Virgin Mary was copyrighted by some enterprising chinese guy, and, at least in theory, everytime somebody manufactures the image outside of Mexico they have to pay royalties to this guy. Same for Mexico's national anthem. Everytime it's played outside of Mexico, like in international soccer matches for example, they have to pay royalties to some American company. I guess Mr. Hawass is just trying to avoid something like this. It's all pretty fucked up if you ask me.
Nice argument - bad example.
The Little Mermaid is Danish
Actually the Russian Federation consists of several republics, provinces and territories, and Chechnya is one of the self-governing states under the federal government. They have their own President, Parliament and Constitution.
You may certainly discuss the amount of self rule. Since the end of the hostilities the Russian Federal government has poured large amounts of money into reconstruction - and today Grozny looks like a proper city again. The political leadership in Chechnya is officially pro-Russian.. but who cares as long as the Russian money keeps rolling in, the open war is over and only the enemies of the ruling elite "disappear"?
The Little Mermaid was written by Hans Christian Anderson who was DANISH, you insensitive clod!
Here will be an old abusing of God's patience and the king's English.
All I have to do is climb up the hill and answer one question. BRB ...
This just looks like a pyramid scheme to me...
"They said I probly shouldn't fly with just one eye," "I am Bender. Please insert girder."
They just want to prevent anyone from copying the pyramids and the sphinx to use them for commercial purposes, but who in it's right mind would do that?
Since the pyramid is on the back of every greenback, I wonder if Egypt will demand royalties on every US dollar.
Most countries have, especially in the past two decades, rationalized their copyrights under the (by now quite established) Berne Convention and Universal Copyright Convention. The U.S. recognizes other countries' copyrights as agreed in the treaty, and they recognize ours similarly. The treaties don't require countries to recognize weird-ass special cases other countries might establish.
For example, the UK claims a perpetual copyright on the King James Edition of the Bible. The US does not recognize this copyright, and considers the KJV, first published in 1611, to have long since entered the public domain. But this doesn't mean all US copyrights are invalid in the UK or something; the US and UK recognize each others' normal copyrights under the various international conventions, and the US just ignores the special-case KJV weirdness. I expect it will similarly ignore Egypt's special-case pyramid weirdness.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
in the country it's made in. No matter what the US might think. That's why the pirate bay is still operating and that's why pyramids will only be copyrighted in Egypt.
(Kidding! Kidding! :-)
"Not an actor, but he plays one on TV."
But since Egypt is a one-party state, I guess they will go ahead and do anything they want, like any centralized dictatorship.
DNA is a Turing machine. You, however, being dynamic and emergent, are not.
The country where protection is claimed is where copyright is being infringed, not where the work was created. Therefore if I created pyramids and sphinx postcards in the U.S., the U.S. copyright terms would be used because that is where protection would have to be claimed. That term could not exceed the term in the country of authorship however, so you actually get the least term protection of 1) the country where the work was created and 2) the country where the work is being copied, not the most.
I believe that both of those are correct, as far as they go--i.e., you can trademark Mickey Mouse, and you would copyright particular examples of work containing him.
But, I think that might be incomplete. AFAIK, you don't have to do anything extra to protect individual characters. The copyright on the Firefly series protects the character River Tam--any work that features her would be a derivative work for which you need Joss Whedon's permission (or the permission of whoever owns the copyright).
Is that right? Can someone chime in who knows the situation better than me?
Next Egypt will file an infringement suit against the Transamerica Building. Finally, something to replace OJ as the trial of the century!
This is a tough one for me as I oppose copyright that extends beyond the durability of the original work (see signature). But still, the durability of a work's creator(s) must also be considered. If you're not alive to make more, no continued royalties will be any incentive.
In fact it will become a disincentive for anyone to explore that form of architecture again. Maybe even to tear down the pyramids found in Las Vegas and Paris, France, or even the obelisk in Washington, D.C., as infringing works.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
are indians gonna claim copyrights for every zero used in all the currencies??
I notice that in the full article it says that they're only trying to restrict the manufacture of "100%" copies, indistinguishable from the originals, made to the same scale and with the same materials. So they aren't trying to claim rights over the Luxor hotel in Vegas, but if you had a spare few million tons of stone handy and some free time, and wanted to carve and assemble your own full-scale duplicate of the Great Pyramid, they might get a bit annoyed.
To be honest, I think this is probably about the artefacts in the Cairo Museum and elsewhere. With modern scholarship, these things can be 3-D scanned and the details held in databases and then refabricated. Computer-milling can carve stone directly or produce moulds for castings. I think they're probably concerned that once everything's been scanned in high res., some bright foreign museum entrepreneur will get the idea of downloading the files and setting up their own competing King Tut exhibition in Chicago or London.
Eric Baird
Why not copyright fotos taking about oceans?