Linguistic copyright (RE: this is what I got in the mail.)

J. K. Hoffman comunu:

>I'm not entirely sure that you *can* copyright a created language,
>but still...
As I understand U.S. copyright law, databases (simple tables of facts)
cannot be copyright.  So if I make an Esperanto/English lexicon, that
can't be copyright.  However, if I make a Teonaht/English lexicon, that
is not a table of facts, but an artistic opinion about what the words in
a fictional language might mean.  So I would contend that a Teonaht
lexicon is copyrightable.  Certainly, all other Teonaht materials
(grammars, poetry, sample texts) are also copyrightable.

Of course, I'm a not a lawyer either, but I have had to develop an
understanding of copyright, trademark and patent law at work.

Best regards,

Jeffrey
http://www.langmaker.com

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