Re: Interesting article about conlangs and the law

> [mailto:CONLANG@listserv.brown.edu] On Behalf Of Scotto Hlad
> Since I live in Canada the laws may be a bit different.
> According to the
> Canadian  Intellectual Property Office, "copyright applies to
> all original
> literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works." I define my
> conlang as an
> artlang. I therefore consider it a work of art and as such
> would be covered
> under Canadian Copyright law. Sadly am neither attorney nor
> judge nor law
> maker so my pronouncement holds no more water than a
> collander but at least
> I have something to look to.
I can see where copyrights wouldn't apply to languages, but I read
something back in the 80's about how copyrights had been changed
considerably.  Most notably being that notices really don't need to
be put on materials any more.

Another thing to note is that copyrights aren't just covered by
national laws, but also by many international treaties.  There are
however countries that don't do much about enforcement of
copyrights.  A good example is where I once read that about 98% of
the software in use in China is unlicensed.  Anyone who has ever
been to certain Asian countries could probably also tell you about
the places that sell software (computer programs, movies, music,
etc.) at very low prices, usually on a poorly silkscreened CD or
DVD.