Hallo!

On Wed, 2 Jun 2010 00:03 Sai Emrys wrote:

> SUMMARY
>
> IANAL but IMO as having actually read the relevant laws and summaries
> of various related cases:
>
> 1. Conlangs per se cannot possibly be subject to copyright.

Indeed, they can't.  AFAIK, such a claim by J. C. Brown (which was the
reason why the Logical Language Group completely relexed the language,
resulting in Lojban) was actually defeated in court.

> 2. Conlang writeups (e.g. grammar sketches) are automatically subject
> to copyright. No action is needed other than merely writing it. This
> protection can however be completely avoided by rewriting the same
> facts in a different form.

Sure.  There are published books in which the authors describe the
grammars of other peoples' conlangs in their own words, and they
need not pay royalties to the conlangers or their literary estates.
(Otherwise, the heirs of Zamenhof wouldn't know what to do with all
their money ;) )

Actually, I wouldn't mind other people write descriptions of my
conlangs (as long as they don't tell lies about me or my conlangs,
of course).  If any book author considered one of my conlangs
noteworthy enough to mention and describe it in his _Brief History
of Artificial Languages_ or whatever, I'd feel honoured, rather than
trying to sue him for royalties!

> 3. Conlang names an easily be trademarked, and conworlds are subject
> to trade dress. Viz. "Klingon" as a trademarked term, and the Star
> Trek universe, characters, etc as protected entities. Viz. also fan
> fiction legality.

That would perhaps be worth considering, but it probably isn't
really necessary with the average conlang, at least not as long a
Google search turns up the "official" grammar as the first hit.

> 4. Conlang grammars may be subject to patent, if they are sufficiently
> inventive, but this is extremely unlikely a priori. Without a patent,
> there is no protection from "knockoffs". Viz. the state of IP rights
> in fashion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zL2FOrx41N0 (excellent
> talk, BTW; go watch it now)

I don't think any of my conlang grammars is inventive enough to get
it patented ;)  Definitely not Germanech; most likely also not Old
Albic; I doubt that even for X-1 and X-3.  Also, as none of my
conlang grammars probably contains anything I could cut a profit
out of, I see no reason preventing other conlangers from making
conlangs which use similar devices in their grammars, or trying to
charge royalties.

> 5. Attempting to protect a conlang is incredibly stupid if you care at
> all about it being used by anyone else. Your enemy is ignorance, not
> theft. Viz. the argument laid out in Okrent's book.

Indeed.  Part of the reason why Volapük collapsed is that Schleyer
insisted that no-one except himself could devise new words and
expressions - and thereby mummified his language.  I feel nothing
wrong with third-party contributions to a conlang as long as they
use the word-formation mechanisms provided by the author and stay
true to the "spirit" of the language.

As I said earlier in this thread, use of my conlangs by others is
welcome and encouraged (once I have finished their documentation),
though I'd like others to treat them with respect.  (But my
experience with such matters show that few people try to "steal"
conlangs, and most third-party users of conlangs act respectfully
towards them.)

> 6. Commercial entities will demand maximum possible assignment of
> rights, including all copyrights, trademark rights, patent rights, and
> other exploitation and moral rights, until some entity (e.g. the LCS)
> gains enough prestige to negotiate a different deal. This is a matter
> of negotiational leverage, not of legal status.

Yes.  This is the reason why I haven't placed any bid for a work
for hire yet.  I briefly considered filing a bid for Dothraki, but
I decided that the matter would be too troublesome.  At any rate,
my personal conlangs such as Old Albic or Germanech are not for sale.
There is nothing wrong with other people using them, though.

--
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