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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).
Fortunately for the rest of us, the FSM is compatible with the GPL.
Anybody want my mod points?
That the take-down notice is a lightning bolt... up your butt. You've been warned.
...who have found using IP an effective way to manage criticism.
Beware: I believe all are created equal, and have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Seeing the pictures here I believe there is a reasonably case for prior art, no? If anything the Vatican should pay George Lucas, as he has 25 years on them ;)
That being said imho the emperor from the Empire strikes back looked much more formidable, the pope should have gone with that look instead...
And when you gaze long enough into the code, the code will also gaze into you.
We have to give money in chur.... oh wait. never-mind.
*Process is Irrelevant, Progress is Paramount*
FSM be praised. Ramen.
Blar.
I think that many religions would site religious texts as evidence of prior art on that one.
I'm starting to think GNU is the problem with "GNU/Linux" these days.
Hey, man! That'll be $50. Um, for the IP infringement, unless you're not a cop.
We should condemn transsexualism and lesbianism as an immoral affront to the Wonder of God's creation.
A more recent version of morality is available. Changes include: Better support for alternative system configurations, 32bit color (your version is 1 bit), and fault tolerance.
Would you like to install the update now? _
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
Something that I rarely hear pointed out is that, with copyright as we know it today, Christianity would have died "in the womb." Imagine if the various churches who were the recipients of Paul's letters were unable to make copies and forward them to other churches. Imagine if the Bible were originally copyrighted (the way that the modern critical texts are! I still don't really get that one--how a 2000 year-old text can be coyrighted.) Copyright is an enemy of the Christian faith, and I'm disappointed in the Vatican--of course, here I am a Baptist whose theological 40% evangelical, 30% Anbaptist, and 30% Eastern Orthodox, so maybe that's not surprising.
"He who would learn astronomy, and other recondite arts, let him go elsewhere. " -- John Calvin, commenting on Genesis 1
All they need to do is register their symbols, images, etc as trademarks in every country of the world.
Ugh... I wish people would stop mixing up the difference between trademark and copyright. Notwithstanding that the Vatican is a sovereign state and can do whatever the heck it wants within its boundaries, what they're really declaring is that the trademark of the Pope is going to be reserved for their exclusive use. Copyright isn't even involved here.
The Pope? How many IP lawyers does he have?
"I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
There's been at least one long standing battle in the US over much the same problem: people taking an image, name and/or conceptual equivalent, and using it in such a way as to ... dishonor is frequently used here, but not many understand the it from the injured parties' standing.... insult is closer but too weak ... we'll just say: to promote a commercial product, the juxtaposition of the appropriated image and the product being contrary to the known statements of the party imaged and/or the descendants.
The product in this case is Crazy Horse malt liquor. Crazy Horse spoke out against alcohol many times, specifically claiming its use was destroying his people. His descendants have been trying to get the brewer to stop using the name. No, they didn;t attempt to acquire copy right or trademark protection, because they didn't think they'd need it. In their culture, such protection is automatic and seated deeply in the cultural mores.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
Under the Berne Convention and all other copyright treaties, local copyright laws apply in every country. Trademark laws are local as well. The state of Holy See could pass legislation copyrighting the Bible for God's sake (pun intended), and it would have no impact whatsoever on the rest of the world, where that legislation has no relevance.
Whether organizations around the world connected to the Roman Catholic Church are affected by this isn't a matter of copyright law. That's simply a matter of the rules that a church lays out for its members. If the RCC says "no meat on Friday" or "no condoms" or "no use of the pope's logo without permission", that's just a church being a church. I can see members of that church being concerned about a change in those rules, but is this News For Nerds or Stuff That Matters? No.
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
Who do they think they are, god?
Stonewolf
Wait, are you talking about the church, or copyright holders?
Circumcision is child abuse.
I haven't been able to find the actual Vatican statement, but as the news accounts describe it, it looks like this is really nothing more than a routine trademark claim. I don't think they're claiming that you can't refer to the pope or even display his symbols without permission. They just don't want them used in such a way as to suggest that the Pope has authorized something without permission. This is the same as a regular trademark. You can talk about IBM and even portray its logo; you just can't use them in such a way as to suggest that you speak for IBM or are affiliated with IBM.
Please replace all references to the trademarked "Pope" with "Old Guy In The Funny Hat". Now that's better.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
I dunno, you don't get executed for having an unauthorised copy of the bible like in the good old days.
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
Umm, yeah.
(Disclaimer: Catholic guy here. Take that as you will)
1) The whole story/argument/whatever is based on an organization that literally invented a little something called an imprimatur (The funny part is, the deal with Galileo was largely based on the fact that he printed his famous book and using a papal imprimatur without permission, but that's a whole other argument that I'm sure I'd be modded into oblivion for elaborating on).
2) They've sorta held the trademark for roughly 1400 years or so, and the office for roughly 1973 years (an estimate counting back to when Peter was named to the office, counting Dennis The Short's mathematical hose-ups on the whole Anno Domini tabulations.)
3) It's their office, thus their right... still open for parody and news purposes though, at least in western nations that enjoy freedom of speech. No different than if Tux the Penguin were registered as a trademark by the Linux Foundation, really (For instance, using Tux as a marker for Linux news stories, versus Microsoft using Tux as their new logo for Windows 8...) They're no further beyond or above secular law (outside of Vatican City) than any other organization... which makes the summary kind of a moot point.
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
And, in other news...
The Pope was today sued by God for GPL violations of the Bible. The complaint submitted by God claimed that all material published by the Holy Father was required to be released under the GNU General Public Licence because it was a derivative work of the scriptures.
The distinction between copyright, trademark, and patent law is important in todays information wars.
It is somewhat unsurprising that a Catholic is blissfully unaware that nowhere in the New Testament is there any mention of Peter being named to this office, that Jesus even established the Papacy, or that Peter was even regarded as a bishop.
Most references only discuss the concept of Peter being in that role from about the 4th century AD, and indeed the Catholic church had to issue a document in the 1960s to codify this belief as dogma.
the first Bishop... hmmmz that'd be James The Just.... you know the guy who nearly had Saul/Paul thrown off the walls of Jerusalem for generally recruiting the diaspora and non jews to the "faith".
James the Just was the.. BROTHER of Jesus, the ELDER brother according to every writing contemporary to the times.
he was the first "Mebakker"(bishop/guardian)
funnily enough just after Constantine thought it'd be a great idea to perpetuate the Roman empire thought the Church of Rome there first appeared the fake entries in "Josephus : Antiquities of the Jews" which mentioned Jesus in an allegedly contemporary writing.
while Josephus DID indeed write the Antiquities of the Jews" the entries regarding Jesus were proven to be slotted in.
the same technique that identified the different authors of the bible was used to discover that the entries were indeed faked. The antiquities of the Jews also mentions James as the brother of Jesus and this could also be written off as fakery were it not for this also being said BY Origen in around 234 when quoting Josephus but makes no mention of the "Testimonium Flavianum" (wee bio of jesus) and also mentioned in the Dead Sea SCrolls (see James the Brother of Jesus: The Key to Unlocking the Secrets of Early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls)
so... if James was his ELDER half brother..... how can the immaculate conception have occurred...... let me help you.. it didn't it just helped weave in the mythology of other Romano/Greek deities into the mix.. i could go on the the rest of the mythology surrounding jesus and his alleged story but i can't be bothered atm.. am on call and may have to shoot out and tend to my flock of clients who can't find their own ass with a map as far a their PC's go
I wasn't implying that they didn't have the RIGHT to such a copyright/trademark, I was simply trying to point out the underlying problems with trying to enforce such a copyright claim. Given the especially litigious atmosphere surrounding IP and copyright these days, it seems to me that the the Papacy may have invited trouble unnecessarily.
Disclaimer: I have a Ph.D. in New Testament, so I know of what I speak. While the Greek Text itself is not (technically) copyrighted in certain forms, the specific arrangement of the Greek Text known as the "UBS4" that is the basis of all modern translations IS copyrighted. And the copyright is enforced. That is why I said "critical edition" or something along those lines in my original post.
"He who would learn astronomy, and other recondite arts, let him go elsewhere. " -- John Calvin, commenting on Genesis 1
But how's that relevant?
I could say I'm an Apple employee, wear black etc. Doesn't necessarily make me one.
Or I could even say I'm a hardcore Apple Fan. But if I actually serve and follow the Chair Throwing Steve instead, my claims would be in doubt.
I could say I'm serving the American Public and Protecting the Children. But it could be just a bunch of bullshit to get votes.
Italian guy here. Studied what an imprimatur was and its implications in literature in high school. In Galileo's times, imprimaturs ("be it printed", Latin) were necessary to print books in several areas of Italy, including, of course, the Papal States and all states that cared about good relationships with Rome. Therefore, obviously had Galileo to falsify one to publish a book, he would not have been able otherwise.
On the other hand, imprimaturs were widely recognised as marks of bad quality publications. They caused the same reaction that a label reading "this videogame has been approved by the Christian union of concerned mothers" would today.
No book worth reading has ever received the imprimatur, to my knowledge.
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