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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.'"
That's theft protection. Copyright infringement != theft, remember?
They should put message at the beginning of movies instead of the stupid FBI warning thing.
I see that the effectiveness of DRM hasn't changed in 800 years.
Yeah...because god, the creator and lord of all things, is going to enforce human laws.
"God must be greater than the greatest of human weaknesses and, indeed, the greatest of human skill. God must even transcend our most remarkable-to emulate nature in its absolute splendor. How can any man or woman sin against such greatness of mind? How can one little carbon unit on Earth-in the backwaters of the Milky Way, the boondocks-betray God, ALMIGHTY? That is impossible. The height of arrogance is the height of control of those who create God in their own image."
Living With a Nerd
I think it would be pretty kick-ass to have some Saint materialize and lay on some whup-ass to would be thieves.
*gasp* THE BISHOP!
crazy dynamite monkey
No wonder my crops failed and there was a rain of toads on the farm after I downloaded "Superman III".
In these days, it was common practice to copy books. It was even encouraged to spread knowledge and share it with others. This protection is against theft and is just as (in)effective as today's copy protection techniques.
The Book of Revelation ends like this:
Not copy-protection, but an "invariant section" definition as in the GFDL. The translation is medieval, but the original and therefore clearly the practice is much older. Since there was no government-provided copyright law with which to enforce this, threatening eternal damnation is pretty much the only resort available. (Right?)
(Sidenote: of course, this was written before that book was commonly bound into a single-volume manuscript, but that doesn't stop people from assuming that they were meant to apply to the entire bible in its current form.)
Even slashdot eventually will equate copyright violations with theft.
Technically I suppose it is possible to steal and only break one, but most theft is proceeded by the crime of coveting as well.
Things like this are in News, while things like research on how monkeys make the same mistakes humans do when it comes to money are thrown in Idle. This story is a novelty while that one has implications for how we do things. These are far from the only examples. What gives?
I don't think I'd mind nearly as much if Idle's comments page wasn't so broken; it makes a story otherwise worth discussing too much of a pain in the ass.
Your brain is not a computer.
"If yee hath downloaded this book from a site of file sharing, then may thy hard drive crash and all your data be lost."
I think these kinds of notes in books were not uncommon at all back in the day. My great grandfather wrote in several of the big books that were handed down "This book belongs to ____. If you take it, and don't give it back, then you are no darn good." We always kinda laughed at that in our family, but lots of people took that a little more seriously then.
A case can be made that this would be MORE effective, because there are more people who might pay attention to this instead of the silly FBI warnings.
Then again, it's theft protection, not copy protection, as another person noted. After all, they don't care about people copying it, only about people stealing it.
They should write EULAs more like this. Just as effective, but far more likely to be read out of sheer curiosity.
'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.'
That is the longest password I've ever seen.
"I'm just here to regulate funkiness."
Like with all religious proclamations they don't, its just made up nonsense pulled out of their collective asses.
I'm a rabbit startled by the headlights of life
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.
No more effective than the FBI/INTERPOL warning on a video.
A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.
I believe that all copies of this book must be immediately destroyed because this was the wish of the original authors.
You can't handle the truth.
Any chance it's in public domain by now, or does Sony have involvement in this also?
I think that "Steal" is the key word here, as in "To Deprive Them of Their Property" Calling this copyright is a stretch to say the least.
haha, my CAPTCHA is "Criminal" I wonder if its a coincidence or something.... More.
Reads more like a theft deterrent than copy protection.
I use irony whenever I can, but my shirts are still wrinkled...
Guessing at the literacy rates in 1229, what are the chances that a sticky-fingered thief would also be able to read the curse in order to feel the dread that it was meant to create? Did they have a literacy program for miscreants?
I need trepanation like I need a hole in the head.
Here's the relevant chapter.
Can you point us to the line where it says "Thou shalt not steal"....?
No sig today...
there was a medieval book called "SaintRoulette" that had this feature but it didn't work out too well. The Saint materialized, but all he did was hold up a sign that said "tits or gtfo"
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
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Ancient inscriptions from classical, and older (e.g., ancient Middle Eastern), times often contain curses against those who would deface, or in some cases alter, them. The key is that they don't seem to prohibit copying them at all.
---- Richard L. Goerwitz III
Medieval scribes wrote book curses in the "colophon" at the end of the book; here are two favorites:
Whoever steals this book let him die the death; let him be frizzled in a pan; may the falling sickness rage within him; may he be broken on the wheel and be hanged.
For him that stealeth, or borroweth and returneth not, ... let it change into a serpent in his hand and rend him. Let him be struck with palsy, and all his members blasted. Let him languish in pain crying out for mercy, & let there be no surcease until he sing in dissolution. Let bookworms gnaw his entrails. ... Let the flames of Hell consume him forever.
— San Pedro monastery, Barcelona
... and one a bit older (from Asurbanipal's library in Assyria 650 BCE):
Clay tablet of Ashurbanipal, King of the World, King of Assyria, who trusts in Ashur and Ninlil. Your lordship is without equal, Ashur, King of the Gods! Whoever removes [this tablet], writes his name in place of my name, may Ashur and Ninlil, angered and grim, cast him down, erase his name, his seed, in the land.
People were encouraged to copy books and discouraged from stealing books. If you wanted a book you could buy the ink, paper and sit and copy it yourself. You could pay someone else to copy it. Churches made money employing people with penmanship skills to copy books. Who do you think funded Galileo's work and published copies of his work? God made commandments about stealing and no commandments about copying even though there was a lot of intellectual property floating around. Maps in particular were very valuable. Simple math formulas were closely guarded secrets because there were no commandments about copying them. The formula for purple dye was a trade secret because people were afraid it would be copied. No copy protection, just simple reminders that theft will be punished by God.
An old gypsy might have touched you on the face and said "Thinner."
My mom's got a book in her collection from 1775 called "Watt's Logick". It's got a great inscription in the inside cover:
"Steal not this book, you dirty clown, for fear th' gallows shall be yours."
Where's your house? I only ask because you claim it's morally reprehensible to ask somebody not to steal, so I assume you have no problem with people breaking in and snatching all of your stuff. As you say, by claiming you somehow have more of a right to your possessions than I do, you're playing the same endgame. You think all other men your slave. That or you're illiterate and totally failed to read even the summary. Did you even read the headline, or is your usual tirade against copyright law only (slightly) on-topic by pure chance?
ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI
if i own a house, i have something unique. it has doors, windows. if you break into my house, and take my television, i am now without a television
meanwhile, if i copy an mp3, have i deprived anyone of anything? ostensibly, i've deprived the owners of the mp3 from control of how it is distributed, and theoretically, i've deprived some artist $. but in reality, i've increased the exposure of that artist, he'll fill more seats at concerts, and the only people i've deprived economically is the distributor, whom isn't even needed anymore, since the internet has replaced their function
the problem is you believe a logical falsehood: that taking a car, or a television, or a diamond ring, something material with concrete value, is somehow anything like copying a file, which is effortless, and without cost. but that you equate these obviously conceptually different things that a kindergartener could correctly compare and contrast, means you are either not very bright or a victim of propaganda
in fact, the little scenario i outlined above has a well-conceived strong capitalist model: radio. on radio, they give songs out for free. why? to attract interest, and they use that interest to sell advertising. again: this is completely valid capitalist principles at work. on the internet, an artist can give his tracks out for free. why? to attract interest, and sell warm butts in concert halls. solid capitalism at work. no one loses out. well, except for one party: the recently made redundant and useless: old school distributors
and that's really what this is all about: corporatism, not capitalism. what i am talking about is not some hippie socialist "information wants to be free man" bullshit, its merely a new capitalist landscape enabled by new technology, the internet. but you have these old school distributors, now suddenly redundant and useless, angry that the world has changed and they are now defunct
so what do they do? they do what any good corporatist would do: they manipulate the market. the greatest enemy capitalism has ever known is not socialism or communism, it is corporatism. study your economic history with monopolies and oligopolies from the turn of the century: you use your size and heft to crush the little players in the marketplace, you buy off the government that is supposed to keep the market fair with rules, to make rules that instead artificially preserve the status quo with you on top. so what you are seeing with intellectual property is not capitalists versus anarchists or thieves, but corporatists versus new capitalist models
unfortunately, people like you, who aren't very bright, easily buy the obviously logically unsound propaganda of the corporatists, who describe intellectual property as if it were owning a house or a television. its obviously not the same thing
consider this a little intellectual charity for you today. try to grow a little intelectually, and see that you are far from understanding the subject matter you are currently ignorantly commenting on
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
I get it, I really do. So bear with me for a moment...
What I want is really pretty simple. First off, with the current unemployment situation it is terribly unfair that some people have jobs and others do not. Especially considering that most of the people without jobs today (as much as 20% of the US population, even higher elsewhere) are never going to get a job. Ever. So the government needs to be in charge - completely - of providing income for people that aren't working. Calling the money "unemployment insurance" is a joke. Call it the dole. Or government support. Whatever. It doesn't matter what it is called but the government needs to recognize that there are more people than jobs and these people need to eat. So working becomes optional. If you don't want to work, there are 10 people that are overqualified for your job that would work for half of what you are making. So nobody needs to work ever again.
Obviously food, rent, clothes and other necessities have to be affordable to the people on the dole. So we need government price controls to insure that people aren't gouged and that the dole covers everything they need. Health care just needs to be something that happens. You shouldn't have to register because that would be a huge problem for immigrants and tourists who can't really "register".
A side effect of this is that you get some really strange lobbying going on. Let's say you have a Ferrari dealership and you sell a couple of cars a month. Wouldn't it be nice if driving a Ferrari was included as a "basic necessity" so people on the dole could buy Ferraris? Then you wouldn't be selling one a month but more like 20 a day. Business would be booming and you might even be able to hire more people.
The result is just about everyone in any sort of business is then going to want to have their products and services declared as a basic necessity so that people on the dole can either buy them or the government just pays for it anyway. The end result of this is that pretty much everyone in any sort of business is working for the government directly or indirectly. From the Ferrari dealer to the company that makes generic (thin) toilet paper. Probably the thicker, more absorbent stuff is declared as a luxury and eliminated by the government.
I guess at that point it doesn't make any difference if I pirate a movie or if I go to the store and buy it - because everything is pretty much owned, priced, paid for and owned by the government. So there is no need for anything like "copyright" any longer and no worries about people stealing stuff - it all belongs to the people anyway.
This system has been tried and it doesn't work. Not just doesn't work well, but actively collapses within a very short period of time. Read some history and look into non-religious communes. Too bad. Of course, there seems to be a never-ending supply of people trying to vote for this kind of plan. We are starting to see what happens when we get someone that almost half-believes this is possible. But doesn't really and can't actually bring himself to either admit it or tell people the truth. So we are getting some half-assed attempts at this kind of a plan without really doing it.
I guess the next plan is based around making rich people pay for it all. Tax them until they aren't quite so rich anymore and all our problems will be over. Except that plan doesn't work any better than the one above.
What it comes down to is you either pay for what you consume or you expect someone else to. Not paying is the gateway to anarchy.
because it now costs $0 to distribute it
furthermore, what motivates people to write a song? love of music, love of fame, or just trying to get in a girl's pants
the point is, you can consume media, because media costs nothing, and those who make it, make it for love
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
...
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
...
I find your lack of faith disturbing.
Here they are in these modern times finally placing their faith where it should be in such matter, with their infallible creator and they who sitith at the right hand of His Honor Almighty. Why, only 800 years perviously a (yes, I saw it, I like it better this way) FAR more barbaric time in this growing Savior's development, they were actually burning books, a self-limiting process. So desperate had they become for sources large enough to keep a mob in books until their fervor wore off that they had not only raided Alexanderia, the world's largest library and stripped it shelves clean, but fervor unabated had raided the daughter of the librarian there and had stripped her flesh bare of skin. What a pleasure to know that the pinnacle of rights management had been achieved 8 centuries ago and continues on today. Rightfully doubting the law of man when the One True Lawmaker is still on the job, Phillip Emmons "Isaac" Bonewits protected his 1971 treatise "Real Magic" ISBN 0-87728-688-4 with just such a shrink-wrap damnation. I am sorely tempted towards enjoining any who, giving up after struggling with their fourth 3 syllable word in this article and exercising their editor-given divine right to mod down what they can't understand, to find themselves forced pivvy-wise with sudden gusts of bowel explusions, but unable to gain entrance instead expulse perforce into their socks. In a public place. Instead I'll withhold the explicit and allow them to identify themselves herewith.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
Lol, this would only ward off the fools, since there is no god.
Basically, it's 6,000 year-old FUD? Same ole tricks, same ole tricks.
The eternal struggle of good vs. evil begins within one's self.
want to buy a capital letter?
want to buy a punctuation?
So because TFA makes the same mistake it's OK to just spew the same crap in the summary's title? There is exactly _one_ disclaimer in the six examples that can be interpreted (liberally) to mean "don't copy this".
Each and every single one of those six disclaimers concerns itself with copying. Nothing else.
do you understand the concept you fucking retard?
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
that reminded me of longest surviving tamil (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamil_language) books (thirukural, tolkappiyam, etc.), chinese books (art of war, etc.), any arts (picasso, etc.), or buildings (pyramids, etc.); and, these do not require a warning message to survice test of time.
Rev. 22:18-20:
[18] For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: [19] And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.
Always made me chuckle, considering the number of times the bible has been reformatted, translated, sourced, etc.
"...And who wants to make buttprints in the sands of time?" ~Bob Moawad