Re: Copyrighting/Patenting a Conlang

Doug Dee scripsit:

> It would seem to me, then, that if you published a grammar of your conlang,
> it [the published grammar book] would be protected by copyright.
Yes.

> And if I then used your language to write or translate something, then
> I would be guilty of a copyrigth violation, because what I wrote would
> be a "derivative work" based on your grammar book.
Not at all.  Otherwise, if I wrote a cookbook and you baked a cake
according to one of the recipes, your cake would belong to me!  The
concept of "derivative work" is not exactly defined by the (U.S.) Copyright
Act, but is generally indicated thus:

	A "derivative work" is a work based upon one or
	more preexisting works, such as a translation, musical
	arrangement, dramatization, fictionalization, motion picture
	version, sound recording, art reproduction, abridgment,
	condensation, or any other form in which a work may be
	recast, transformed, or adapted.

An original work written in German, using a copyrighted German dictionary
and a copyrighted German grammar, is not a derivative work of the
dictionary or the grammar, because it has not been "recast, transformed,
or adapted" from them.

> (On the other hand, by this reasoning a parody like _Bored of the Rings_
> would be "derivative," but apparently that sort of thing is _not_
> a copyright violation.)
That is a different situation.  In the U.S., a parody of a work is
considered a "fair use" of that work, and is an exception to the exclusive
rights of the copyright owner.  The reasoning here is that owners are
unlikely to license their works for the purpose of parody.  The decisive
case was the 2 Live Crue parody of Ray Orbison's "Pretty Woman".
This rule does not apply in other countries, most of which have a
narrower definition of "fair use", covering only things like brief
quotations for review or scholarship.

IANAL, TINLA.

--
John Cowan                              jcowan@reutershealth.com
http://www.ccil.org/~cowan              http://www.reutershealth.com
Thor Heyerdahl recounts his attempt to prove Rudyard Kipling's theory
that the mongoose first came to India on a raft from Polynesia.
        --blurb for Rikki-Kon-Tiki-Tavi

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