Holy See Declares a "Unique Copyright" On the Pope

An anonymous reader sends in news of what must be some kind of record in overreaching intellectual property claims: the Vatican has declared that the name, image, and any symbols of the Pope are for exclusive use of the Holy See. They may have a point if, as the declaration hints, some have used "ecclesiastical or pontifical symbols and logos to attribute credibility and authority to initiatives" unrelated to the Vatican. But how much room will they allow for fair use? Will high school newspapers have to remove the Papal Coat of Arms from their Vatican news columns? The royalty schedule was not released, so it's not clear how much Slashdot will have to pay to run this story (or if there will be a penalty for the accompanying pagan idol).

Comments

Re:Please keep in mind

[Anonymous Coward]

unless of course they are declaring Papal supremacy

Supremacy? No, but they do claim infallibility. From WP:

Over the centuries, popes' claims of spiritual authority have been ever more clearly expressed, culminating in the proclamation of the dogma of papal infallibility for rare occasions when the pope speaks ex cathedra (literally "from the chair (of Peter)") to issue a solemn definition of faith or morals.[2] The first (after the proclamation) and so far the last such occasion was in 1950, with the definition of the dogma of the Assumption of Mary.

PS: Slashdot, fix the fucking comment box.

Yea and also fix the fuckwit signup system it aint mailed my password back yet 48 hours is a frikkin joke

This pope thing is easy NUKE the fuck out of the whole lot of em there aint no friikin god never has been never can be never will be just a bunch of sheep following a few mind control dudes wake the fuck up .