Re: linguistic copywrong: Was: I'm sorry I brought it up...

Sally Caves wrote at 2003-03-16 18:53:58 (-0500)
 > Guys, guys... this is getting a little too prolonged for my tastes.
 > THANK YOU, Yitzik, for sympathizing with me.  I too would like to
 > tear the face off of anybody who would try to exploit my conlang
 > and turn it into Lunatic, spoken by moon maidens.  But all this
 > counter-argument that's going up here, while illuminating, is
 > detailing for any outsider who's reading the list and who has a
 > mind for it the ways in which they could exploit us with impunity.
 > Perhaps we could shelve this?  We're enlightened now.
 >
I'm a little doubtful as to whether there's any useful way to exploit
anyone here.  They can't claim to have invented the language, and they
can't copy any writings about it.  I find it hard to imagine a
situation where they need a fully-formed fictional language (as
opposed to just a set of made-up words) and are either willing to do
without a grammar, or go to the trouble of writing one themselves
which doesn't infringe on the author's own - scarcely easier than
making their own language.

I just don't think there's a sufficient market for conlangs to make it
profitable to exploit anyone.  People are making money off the works
of Tolkiend and Okrand, but I really don't think that could be
replicated through stealing someone's language off the web.