Yeppers, that is basically what they do, since you need the
grammer and all to write things, then .. create your own or add
on to it and then ..
Can they copyright the Name and such, as a trademark or logo?
Mike
----- Original Message -----
From: "Chris Bates" <chris.maths_student@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Sunday, March 12, 2006 7:54 AM
Subject: Re: Loxian
> >Good points, but I suspet you can copyright the book, word
list, dictionary
> >and music that it comes in, so .. And people are into
Official vs
> >UnOfficial, so ..
> >
> >Mike
> >
> >
> The issue is not whether you can copyright the grammar, word
list,
> dictionary etc, but whether people can freely use the
language. And I
> would say they can: they might not be able to copy word for
word large
> chunks of your grammar or dictionary, but I don't think that
> copyrighting these materials is enough to stop them actually
writing in
> your language without your permission. Of course, copyright
has been
> spreading in recent years, but I still don't think you can
copyright or
> legally own a language, whether a conlang or a natlang. The
best you can
> do is own the copyright to the grammar and dictionary (and
thus legally
> control their distribution), but I don't think if someone has
already
> legally read these materials (for instance by reading your
website) that
> you can stop them using that knowledge to write in the
language.
> Copyright protects the exact form of particular written
works, not
> their content per se. Isaac Newton, for instance, had he
written the
> Principia recently, would possess copyright over his Principia
and could
> stop people copying his work word for work, but he would *not*
possess
> copyright over the Newtonian physics contained within his
book. If
> copyright law didn't work like this then there would have been
no
> progress in the sciences for a long long time, because
everyone would
> have to ask permission from the first person to publish an
idea to use it.