Tag Archives: Intellectual property

Free Translations

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Ever since I’ve been in this class, it seems like these things keep finding me. My friend (who did not yet know I was taking this class) sent me a link to show me “a bubbling pot of stupidity.” Degree of intelligence aside, the page regarded IP and copyright. The article writer talks about a game translation that was being done by a group, and how they asked to not have their work taken and used for an illegal patch of the game. The writer then states to ignore that due to being hypocritical. “You cannot disrespect someone else’s intellectual property and then turn around and stamp your feet at others who disrespect yours.”

This statement incited an argument between the writer and and readers who felt insulted by the statement. Due to the nature of people on the internet, the argument quickly decayed to insults and name calling, but the point still stands: should the free translation made by a group of their own free will be protected from stealing through respect, or does the lack of actual copyright make it free game to take and modify?

For those interested, and to get a better idea of the debatess that occurred, the page is here, with the long list of comments/arguments at the bottom.

Intellectual “Property”

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I hadn’t even thought of this before. The very term intellectual property has property in it. Copyrights, which seek to protect intellectual property, are nothing more than divergent land property laws. In reading this article, I came upon some recent historical roots of this idea. The article deals with the pains of authors by profession in 19th century England, before the Copyright Act of 1842. Seeing literary work as true labor, these authors would argue one should have a right to it as one does to his property. Only reading a bit of the article, it would appear that the desire for copyright laws comes out of the desire to make authorship a profession. To protect one’s own skill, some government assistance would be required. After all, no one can steal the skill of the carpenter, the metal worker, the engineer. It is the poor author, who’s very genius can be reproduced and disseminated unbeknownst to him, who needs the help.

Queries on the Course

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According to the World Intellectual Property Organization, intellectual property consists of two categories: industrial property, such as patents and trademarks, and Copyright, which includes those creations of the mind like literature, films, and music (WIPO). I wonder, when did people conceive of the intellectual property? Who conceived it? And under what circumstances? After all, from reading Howard, it would appear the early books had no need to protect such artistic integrity. Writers of antiquity wrote their names on their own work, of course; and, when printing appeared, it took years before they decided to write the publishing house’s name or the place of publication. I wonder if attitudes toward intellectual property, and publishing in general, have truly changed since then. Did people in Gutenberg’s time believe in the free sharing of ideas? Or was it simply not even thought of; the prospect of a buyer much more important than the identity of the seller? I hope when we get to more modern developments of “books” we will see the contrasts more clearly.

P.S. Does that title count as alliteration?