Re: Conlang music

----- Original Message ----

From: David J. Peterson <dedalvs@...>
Chris:
<<
If I write a book in Esperanto, it's equally copyrightable as if I'd written it
in any natlang. If I write in Klingon, I'd need approval from either Okrand or
Paramount, whoever is listed as the copyright owner. If I wrote in Quenya, it
might fall either way, depending on the opinions of the Tolkien estate.
>>
Wait.  Is this true?  Are you certain?  I'm sure that's what Paramount
and Okrand would say now, but has it been legally tested?  If it has,
I'd like to read the case.
-David

It hasn't, and I don't think Paramount would win. Wikipedia suggests the best
precedent is Feist v Rural
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feist_Publications_v._Rural_Telephone_Service),
where a telephone book company tried to argue that its contents were
copyrighted. SCOTUS ruled that you can copyright how you present information,
but you can't copyright information itself (so if I type up the phone book in a
different format, I wouldn't be violating copyright law).

As far as I can tell (but IANAL), any claim would have to come under trademark
law, not copyright law. For instance, that's how Lucas managed to stop Luther
Campbell from performing as Luke Skyywalker
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luke_Skyywalker_Records). I'm not sure the courts
would be impressed with someone's attempt to claim all the thousands of words
in their conlang are trademarked, though.

But I also agree with Chris's follow-up: It's good form to ask permission, even if
it's not legally required.

-- Paul