p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P:- Once upon a time, copyright and intellectual property law were arcane preserves claimed only by a small group of lawyers, none of whom could agree on exactly what either meant, but who knew a good thing when they saw it.

Interesting billing opportunities.

Not only but also, an intense and ongoing PR blitzkrieg launched by the entertainment cartels says anything and everything that can be copyrighted WILL be copyrighted.

And for all eternity, if possible.

Even today, no two IP or copyrights lawyers can agree what it’s all about. But that doesn’t stop the studios and labels from decreeing it’s absolutely essential [their emphasis] that both are taught in depth and in detail in classrooms from junior school onwards.

An unoriginal phrase

So what about ahhhEEEEyahEEEEyaghh !!! ??

It’s p2pnet’s textual representation of old-time Tarzan star Johnny Weissmuller’s interpretation of the “victory cry of the bull ape“.

The sound itself has apparently been registered, but what they’d really like to do is copyright it — nail it down so every time someone ululates the ululation, someone else gets paid.

But apparently, that can’t be managed.

Not in North America, anyway.

Any idea what the situation is in Britain? – we asked Crosbie Fitch, who knows about these things.

“I daresay one could copyright the sound recording, the musical arrangement of the yell, and the song (the vocalisation necessary to reproduce the yell), unless of course it didn’t constitute an ‘original’ work, eg was a phrase in an obscure tonal language,” he said.

Like what? -  we wondered.

Like, ‘Yo, babes! I’m fit and coming your way!” he suggested, explaining it would, “thus be an unoriginal phrase anyone could speak (or yell) without needing permission”.

Chanting mystical incantations

Crosbie went on »»»

However, that’s simply copyright in general. Who knows how far you’d get in the UK?

All you should know is that copyright lets publishers sue people for doing nothing more than enjoying their cultural liberty, freely speaking what others have spoken.

Publishers are predators, privileged to culturally predate on the public their prey, and the only escape for the public is to abolish the unethical weapon the publishers wield against them – to abolish copyright.

Otherwise it makes no difference, even if I were a high court judge and could give you a learned answer that a yell would be uncopyrightable. If a publisher wants to sue you for saying “Me TarzanTM, you Jane” or yelling his call “ahhhEEEEyahEEEEyaghh …” they will, and apart from having remained silent, there’s not much you can do about it – unless you’re very wealthy, or can find another publisher to defend you.

Copyright privileges the copyright holder above others, and that is why it is so iniquitous.

There is no defense against its litigation except wealth (settlement or legal expenses). There are only four natural rights violations when it comes to speech, and these are obvious to the speaker:

1. LIBERTY, e.g. drowning out others who would speak.
2. TRUTH, e.g. lying or otherwise impairing the truth.
3. PRIVACY, e.g. disclosing secrets obtained through burglary.
4. LIFE, e.g. inciting violence against a person or class thereof.

So, there is one case in which it would be a natural rights violation (not a mere privilege infringement) to yell a unique cry. And that is if you had burgled a shaman whilst in the course of chanting mystical incantations over a potion they’d been brewing, and had heard them cry “Ewar, Woowar!”.

To repeat that publicly would then be disclosing their secret chant – it matters not whether it is effective.

They may have a hard time demonstrating the disclosure of their secret, but it remains the case that their right to privacy has been violated.

As long as everyone else’s natural rights are respected you should be able to say, sing, shout or yell anything you like without fear of prosecution.

Publishers should not be, and do not need to be elevated by privilege above the common man such that they get to possess all our stories, all our songs, even our jungle cries and decide who can tell them, sing them, or even yell them.

Published art belongs to the public, not the publisher, not the artist. If you want to keep it to yourself, don’t publish it, keep it private.

Crosbie  says he’s researching and developing revenue mechanisms and business models for producers of digital art and in the process, ‘has discovered that copyright is not only an ineffective anachronism, but is unethical and unconstitutional‘.]

Thanks. ;P

April, 2009

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 8th, 2009 at 8:47 am and is filed under Freedom, P2P. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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