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Language Creation Society Says Klingon Language Isn't Covered By Copyright
Reader AmiMoJo writes: Earlier this year Paramount Pictures and CBS Studios filed a lawsuit against the makers of a Star Trek inspired fan film, accusing them of copyright infringement. In their amicus brief, which actually uses Klingon language, the Language Creation Society lists many examples of how Klingon has evolved, and it specifically disputes Paramount's earlier claims that there are no human beings who communicate using the Klingon language. "In fact, there are groups of people for whom Klingon is their only common language. There are friends who only speak Klingon to each other. In fact, at least one child was initially raised as a native speaker of Klingon." As such, Paramount should not be allowed to claim copyright over the entire Klingon language, both in written and spoken form. The language is a tool for people to communicate and express ideas, something people should be allowed to do freely under U.S. law, LCS argues.
Just remove the word "Klingon" and you're good to go
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Utegros Vreeen.
Maybe if this goes well it can wrest Elvish away from the Tolkien estate
There may or may not be patentable aspects of conlangs, but a language is an idea, and you can’t copyright ideas. You can copyright a BOOK on a language, but not the language itself.
" In fact, at least one child was initially raised as a native speaker of Klingon."
Which kind of idiots raise their children on Klingon as their main language?
So what about Microshaft collecting (by threats) fees for code used by Linux, Android, and just about everyone else? They didn't even create it, it was around when Gates was in diapers.
Your mother has a smooth forehead. Klingon lives matter!
FWIW: Klingon is no longer listed as one of the translatable languages on Google's "Translate" site ... no idea when it disappeared.
Paramount?
or even just hear the word Klingon, I immediately think of "dingleberry".
I immediately think "circles Uranus"
What that before or after we changed the planet's name to Urectum?
See http://conlang.org/axanar for our press release giving background, links to all the case docs, and a formal legal memorandum from Dentons on conlangs & IP law.
Feel free to ask if you have any questions.
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Take Esperanto. Clearly this falls under the "useful system" rubric; it was intended by its creator to be a useful system to exchange ideas.
Now consider a hypothetical. Suppose Paramount produced a movie about an eccentric scholar who invents a universal language. They go so far as to hire a linguist to construct the rudiments of such a language. In that case the language is constructed to give the most convincing artistic impression of a constructed language possible. It's not designed to be useful, it just is, like fantasy weapons and armor which are probably not very practical but in some cases could hurt someone if you finished them properly (e.g. putting an edge on Sting from LotR). Is the movie Esperanto essentially different from a realistically designed fantasy sword?
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
programming language != code
Your analogy would imply no written works could ever be copyrighted.
Whenever I run into someone who speaks Klingon, or even just hear the word Klingon, I immediately think of "dingleberry". Just me?
Well now I will... Thanks a lot.
Can't comment on this directly because it's out of scope for us.
However, the API cases are certainly related law. I suggest you google "Charles Duan" + Klingon, Oracle, Lexmark, and/or Cisco. You'll get relevant info; he writes well, both for posts and amicus briefs.
http://s.ai - http://s.ai/foia - http://s.ai/tsa/legal - https://patreon.com/saizai
Daj qech. nuvpu' lo' tlhIngan qa'majvaD tho ghewmey Har jIH.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
What are you talking about?
God heals amputees in two ways, one in the present and the other in the future. One is by leading smart men and women to develop innovative prosthetics and other means to make amputees' impairments less disabling.* The other, if prophecies in Isaiah, Revelation, and elsewhere are to be believed, is by describing his plan to resurrect the dead into rebuilt bodies to fix up the earth during the millennium after Armageddon. These rebuilt bodies would have the limbs needed for the job. This second bodily healing doesn't happen prematurely because God is busy illustrating a point to Satan.
* An "impairment" is a problem in body function; a "disability" is the consequence of an impairment on activities of daily living.
The one in which naivity is punished with eternal torment I am pretty sure is the reality we reside in.
You will note the only people rising to the top are the ones who are not naive, and in the case of religion are often the most sinful behind closed doors. From possession of wealth, to sexual abuse, to hiding misdeeds, to brokering deals with groups who their religion tells them to oppose.
On the other hand the naive struggle at the bottom reinforcing their beliefs into an aggressive fervor because it is all they have to hold onto saying that their naivety will be rewarded when they finally die.
In the Oracle vs. Google Java case, the judge asked the parties, "Can the Java programming language be copyrighted?"
It seemed obvious to me that the answer was no.
The definition of the Java programming language is, "the set of all Java programs".
This is an infinite set.
Therefore it cannot be fixed in a tangible medium.
Therefore it cannot be copyrighted.
It seems like a similar argument should prevail here.
The outlook for the rest of the week is Rain Sunday and Monday an Tuesday will be a good day to die,
Has Klingon ever been officially released to open source, like Swift?
... is that not a bit retarded?
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
I truly hope this matter gets settled in a positive way for all involved. Your work is just too spot on to be crushed in such a way.
Qapla'
I'm guessing he's referring to MS's inclusion of code under permissive Open Source licenses, such as the BSD license. The counterpoint is that MS can't "steal" the BSD code, because it's still there for everybody to use. The MS copyright is just for the work as a whole, not the unmodified code. Without further detail, his post appears to be a variation on the common /. riff of "You can't steal ideas, because ideas aren't things; unless we don't like you. Then you stole our ideas".
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
I mean, a language is an encoding of copyrightable works, not the copyrightable works themselves.
If they wanted to protect a kind of encoding, shouldn't Paramount have applied for a patent on it before publishing a multitude of books encouraging people to use it?
"We mustn't be caught by surprise by our own advancing technology" -- Aldous Huxley
The plaintiff has to prove that Mark Okrand's work is expressive rather than functional. Since there are many languages, and they use different words and grammar for the same things, the plaintiff may indeed be able to prove this, and they may be able to assert copyright. But it will be interesting seeing them try to do this.
Bruce Perens.
First versus second language is not really an issue if the child is young enough. And after a certain age children will speak the same way as their peers in the same age group no matter what their parents try to do.
In fairness, his wife spoke English with the kid, and he stopped when the kid was clearly rejecting the Klingon.
(Though also, that would probably have happened with other cases of one parent speaking one language to the kid, while understanding the dominant language used by everyone else. No reason to bother learning a language that is not necessary for communicating with anyone, including the person speaking it.)
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Yes. (Not that I think they could have gotten a patent, but that's another story.)
http://s.ai - http://s.ai/foia - http://s.ai/tsa/legal - https://patreon.com/saizai
Yeah, I saw that later. The summary looked a bit weird regarding this.
Raising kids bilingual in a dominated environment works easy if both parents always talk their primary language, e.g. a friend of mine is more or less german and his wife is french. She speaks always french, to him and the kids. He speaks always german to his wife and the kids.
It is a bit weird if you see a couple talking to each other using different languages but the kids speak perfect french now (the dominant language) and with age of 7 to 11 speak better german than their german teacher in school.
A friend of mine learned 4 languages as child around 1936 - 1942, he lived as the child of an archeology couple in what is now Iraq, until it got occupied by british troops during WWII.
He learned english, german, an arabic dialect and farsi, an persian dialect. However, until he was about 6 he never spoke a single word. The parents thought he was mute.
At certain event, the persian cook sent him to tell his mother that she needs more potatoes from the cellar, from that moment on he spoke all 4 languages fluently and talked as if never anything was wrong.
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
So, how do you say "Streisand Effect" in Klingon?
https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
It would have been fine if they were raising the kid in the Klingon Empire.
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
... He learned english, german, an arabic dialect and farsi, an persian dialect. However, until he was about 6 he never spoke a single word. The parents thought he was mute.
At certain event, the persian cook sent him to tell his mother that she needs more potatoes from the cellar, from that moment on he spoke all 4 languages fluently and talked as if never anything was wrong.
Some kids do this, particularly if they have siblings that "translate" their needs for them, so they don't really have to talk at first.