Reply-To: elfling@egroups.com From: David Brookshire Conner MIME-Version: 1.0 Date: Wed, 13 Oct 1999 11:41:38 -0400 (EDT) To: elfling@egroups.com In-Reply-To: References: <7tcfvl$<8sef@e...> Message-ID: 14340.42840.517278.632541@ts011d25 Subject: Re: online library Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit David Salo writes: > There is no evidence whatever that copyright law forbids the > compilation and publication of dictionaries and grammars describing Elvish. > There has never been any case law stating that languages as such are > subject to copyright, and I have not read a single legal publication that > would make me think that summary description of or commentary on any kind > of language is illegal, despite significant time and effort consulting > available legal resources. FwIW, there was a legal battle over the rights to the constructed language Loglan. James Brown claimed some sort of copyright, I believe, which was contested by John Cowan. In the end, Cowan created his own, derivative language, lojban, with an entirely new vocabulary. I'm unclear on whether this was a settlement kind of thing or a court order kind of thing. I'll see if I can dig up something more concrete than the hearsay and mud-slinging on www.loglan.org and www.lojban.org. Brook --------- E Pluribus Modem --------- Fancy. Myth. Magic. http://www.concentric.net/~nellardo/