Re: My last on linguistic copyright

Quoting And Rosta <a.rosta@...>:

> Sally:
> > Over the past five years I have put up a fine set of pages, artwork,
> and
> > music, what would amount to a BOOK in my profession, for the free
> perusal of
> > all fellow creators on this list, and for any who admire it from afar.
>  I
> > copyright my creations on the Internet.  Most decent people respect
> this,
> > and a Florida branch of the Red Cross, who have asked to borrow my
> "Banjo
> > Playing Mermaid" for their fundraiser this coming June, will give me
> credit
> > for the painting that I have freely lent to them.  As for my Teonaht,
> you
> > other conlangers are free to peruse and use it as you wish, so long as
> you
> > recognize that I am its creator, and not you.  I think that I had
> good
> > reason for being dismayed about the possibilities of having someone
> co-opt
> > my work against my will with impunity, as it was talked about so
> brutally
> > this weekend.  Andreas understands my dismay, Yitzik understands it.
> *I*
> > was the one who started the thread in a light-hearted manner...
> Teonaht for
> > dwarves!  Ha ha!  And I was the one who asked that we stop talking
> about it
> > Andreas was one of several who were following suit
>
> Andreas's message seemed to be asking that we eschew discussion of
> copyright altogether, not refrain only from discussing the ugly &
> painful thought of someone travestying Teonaht. By all means we should
> avoid prolonging a discussion that pertains to you personally & pains
> you, but "Let's not discuss this any longer" messages when said of
> some general topic should be restricted to off-topic subjects.
I said that I would prefer if we did not have discussions about the
copyrightability of invented languages. I stand by this opinion, but I do not
reject the topicality of the subject, nor can I prevent anyone who so wishes
from continuing such discussions on CONLANG.

And, if you want to find people who are passionately willing to discuss these
questions, you should be able to find them in the Tolkienian linguistics
community. The elfling mailing list may be a place to start; it's almost a year
since I left it (hm, technically, I'm still subscribed as NOMAIL), but it used
to pop up with a certain regularity.

                                                     Andreas