Medieval Copy Protection

An anonymous reader writes "In medieval times a 'book curse' was often included on the inside cover or on the last leaf of a manuscripts, warning away anyone who might do the book some harm. Here's a particularly pretty one from Yale's Beinecke MS 214: 'In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen. In the one thousand two hundred twenty-ninth year from the incarnation of our Lord, Peter, of all monks the least significant, gave this book to the [Benedictine monastery of the] most blessed martyr, St. Quentin. If anyone should steal it, let him know that on the Day of Judgment the most sainted martyr himself will be the accuser against him before the face of our Lord Jesus Christ.'"

Comments

That's not copy protection

[XanC]

That's theft protection. Copyright infringement != theft, remember?

Re:That's not copy protection

[commodore64_love]

Precisely.

The need to curse thieves of expensive hand-written Bibles disappeared when the printing press appeared, and Bibles became as plentiful as leaves to wipe your arse. Then nobody cared if you took it from the church (it was easily replaced). Some even started giving bibles away, in order to educate the masses. And of course the bible is not and never has been copy-protected.

Equally Effective

[pwnies]

I see that the effectiveness of DRM hasn't changed in 800 years.

Re:Equally Effective

[Arancaytar]

It has actually grown less effective, seeing as how so many people know how to write nowadays.

If it were up to the copyright lobby, owning a pen would be punishable by fines. :P

Re:Equally Effective

[mackai]

The copyright lobby would be more likely want an additional fee added to the purchase of every pen based on the amount of text you could potentially copy before the ink ran out. This fee would be provided to book publishers to offset the losses they might encounter should you decide to copy portions of the book instead of purchasing an additional copy of the book.

Re:No wonder

[tverbeek]

That was because God withdrew his protection from you for the abomination of wanting to watch Superman III. Everyone knows that only the first two Christopher Reeve films were any good.

WRONG

[JKDguy82]

How many times do we have to explain that copying something is different than stealing something?

It is incredibly *dangerous* to our culture to have the vernacular polluted in a way that equates a criminal deed to a legally mandated civil disregard.

The title of this article should be changed.

scientology copyrights their religious scripture

[circletimessquare]

naive impressionable fools shell out hundreds of thousands of dollars and years of their lives... to find out the next exciting chapter in the riveting saga of xenu and the thetans

if these people knew up front that they were sacrificing all of their money and years of their lives for bad science fiction, they wouldn't join the stupid cult

whenever someone leaks their nonsense, they try to sue the leaker into oblivion and insist on erasing the treasured revelations from any appearance outside the cult

including yours truly here, slashdot:

http://slashdot.org/yro/01/03/16/1256226.shtml

the tactics of scientology, and medieval monks, are a cautionary tale. they actually represent the end game of intellectual property: i control all the information, so i control you, you are my slave. corporations don't call it a religion, but they do the same tactics, with the same end game, whether they realize it or not. relentlessly, they buy off our legislators, and convince them to pass yet stricter and stricter controls on the flow of information

for the sake of all of the noble principles that have arisen out of the enlightenment and so many of us cherish so dearly, and have been codified into such things as the constitution and the declaration of independence, you must do your best in your life to sabotage and destroy the effectiveness of intellectual property. intellectual property is a flawed philosophical premise, but its enforcement works because it creates flows of money, that create power bases, that can be invested in further toll booths on the flow of information, until the whole thing is jammed up, strangled, and controlled. the only antidote is enough of us realizing the threat, and sabotaging it. the idea of fighting intellectual property is actually the fight for the continues enjoyment of our freedoms, ultimately, this is the crux of the clash

and we can do that, with the internet

intellectual property is the ultimate enemy of the freedoms you enjoy and cherish. the internet is the greatest thing since the printing press to challenge the notion. it's a long, ongoing struggle, pitting the highest principles of mankind, versus the lowest, basest forms of control over your life, for the sake of cash. but if you don't wish you or your children to be slaves to corporations, you will do your best to make intellectual property law unenforceable on the internet. it won't be easy, it won't be done in a day, but its one of the most important struggles of our lives, involving the highest principles you believe in

Re:No wonder

[elrous0]

All I can say for 3 is that the Smallville stuff and the Evil Superman stuff wasn't bad. It wasn't good, but it was "Citizen Kane" next to the abomination that was "The Quest for Peace."