Yoga and the American Way
p2p news / p2pnet: Until Warner Music, Vivendi Universal, EMI and Sony BMG were threatened by emerging competition emanating from the Net, few people outside of specialist lawyers and the entertainment and publishing industries cared a whole lot about copyrights.
Now, thanks to the hugely expensive, and ongoing, international PR blitz launched initially by the Big Four Organized Music cartel, eventually picked up by the major movie studios and software houses, it’s being called ‘piracy’ and anyone who doesn’t buy from the corporations, instead preferring independents and the p2p networks, is a ‘criminal’ and/or ‘thief’.
This has, in turn, inspired a thriving new industry where everyone and his brother is suing everyone else for ‘breaking,’ ‘violating’ or merely ‘infringing’ copyrights.
One of the latest to avail himself of the possibilities is Bikram Choudhury, the "yoga teacher to the stars" who, "incensed his native country by getting a U.S. copyright on his style of yoga four years ago," says USA Today, going on:
"In response, India has put 100 historians and scientists to work cataloging 1,500 yoga poses recorded in ancient texts written in Sanskrit, Urdu and Persian. India will use the catalogue to try to block anyone from cornering the market on the 5,000-year-old discipline of stretching, breathing and meditating.
Bikram says he sought legal protection for his yoga because it’s the "American way," states the story.
India’s counterattack goes way beyond Bikram, it goes on, and includes the development of the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library which, when completed, perhaps by December, "will be translated into English, French, Spanish, German and Japanese and sent to patent, copyright and trademark offices around the world".
Meanwhile, "In the world of yoga, Bikram, 60, is something of a star," says USA Today.
"A collector of Bentleys and Rolls-Royces, he teaches his classes of up to 100 students with flamboyant style. He began teaching yoga in the 1970s after immigrating to America. Bikram obtained his first U.S. copyright in 1979 for a book he wrote, Bikram’s Beginning Yoga Class. He also got a trademark for the name of his company, Bikram’s Yoga College of India."
Bikram’s copyright was legitimate and enforceable, a federal judge ruled in April 2005, the story points out, and, "According to Judge Phyllis Hamilton’s ruling, you can get a copyright on a ‘compilation’ of information that’s in the public domain, as long as it’s ‘assembled in a sufficiently creative fashion.’ Both parties settled out of court before the case went to trial. No details were released."
Describing Choudhury as the "Bill Gates of Yoga" Calcuttaweb.com says:
"Some Yoga traditionalists dislike the concept of selling spiritual practice. According to them, Yoga is based on five principles, and one of them is the one that discourages greed. But in the 21st century America, when around 18 million people are practicing it, Yoga is a business."
Also See:
USA Today – Spain bans file-sharing, June 29, 2006
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June 30th, 2006 at 8:01 pm
Interesting. It’s not like anyone with two brain cells left does not know the US patent system is a BAD joke gone totally out of control.
“you can get a copyright on a ‘compilation’ of information that’s in the public domain, as long as it’s ‘assembled in a sufficiently creative fashion.”
Yeah, THAT makes sense. Hooray for unbridled greed, “the American way”!