Could AT&T Give Up On The BellSouth Merger?

Microsoft Discovers That Even Languages Have Intellectual Property Issues

from the no-translating-without-a-license dept

Mon, Nov 27th 2006 9:53am — Mike Masnick

Intellectual property issues just keep getting odder and odder, and Microsoft (who is certainly no stranger to extreme intellectual property ownership claims) may now be facing two separate challenges having to do with languages. The first is over in South Korea, where the company is potentially facing an injunction after a firm claims a patent over switching computer input mode between Korean and English, as is found in Microsoft's Office suite. However, much more bizarre is the lawsuit the company is facing down in Chile where Microsoft dared to offer a version of its software in the Mapuzugun language used by about 400,000 indigenous Chileans without first getting the permission of Mapuche tribal leaders. The tribal leaders are claiming that this is "intellectual piracy," though that seems like a rather difficult stance to defend legally. Either way, it suggests just how far the concept of "intellectual property" is permeating, and just how ridiculous the situations that result from its spread are. Once you start claiming "ownership" of ideas or concepts (or languages), it opens up a whole new world of problems.

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12 Comments

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bryannn, 27 Nov 2006 @ 11:25am

Well if they don't ship it in Mapuzugun how will the people in Chile use it? Great go tribe leaders, really looking out for their tribe!
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- Anonymous Coward, 27 Nov 2006 @ 11:35am
  
  Re:
  why have software in your language when you can have software in your language and also cold cash license fees?
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Nov 2006 @ 11:29am

Maybe the really are looking out for their people. Get 'em all on Linux first. :P
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Bill Wiseman, 27 Nov 2006 @ 11:37am

Even the tribes in Chile have ambulance chasers.
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squeeg, 27 Nov 2006 @ 11:42am

I guess their language isn't open-source
So basically, the Chilean tribal leaders charge any newcomer (or new native child) to learn this special language, right? I doubt it. While I cannot bash a company for shielding their people from the "bowel movement" that is Microsoft, you cannot claim intel. property over a language. Language is a tool that should be free to everyone, not used by third-world governments to scam innocent little companies out of their hard-earned capital.
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Christopher Mercer, 27 Nov 2006 @ 12:00pm

Getting paid to pay
I see how this works. Sue Microsoft for encroaching in their IP rights, then use the money from the windfall to pay for the product.

How else are they going to afford a bloated and ineffective product?
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charlie Vogel, 27 Nov 2006 @ 12:34pm

A case for int. property rights to a language
I'm not a big fan of current copyright and patent laws, because I think they more often than not, hinder innovation, and enrich lawyers and corporations that pour their resources into copyr./patent filing & litigation rather than R & D. I think languages are tricky. For instance, computer programming code and even operating systems might be considered languages. And in the case stated in this article, they possesed a language that may have been known by only .5 million people. that could have some value, or they could have a good reason why they would not want their language so easily accessible by outsiders. I do find it hard to believe that Microsoft would go through the trouble of including a tribal language in a translation program without the cooperation of the tribal leadership. But then again it is Microsoft.
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Alex, 27 Nov 2006 @ 12:45pm

Just watch...
Microsoft is going to lose because they're the BBEG, and then they're going to remove the language from their OS, and then the tribal leaders are just going to turn around and be like "Microsoft is being [insert insult], not including our culturally rich language! My tribe cannot speak English! How can they use this product!"
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Keybored, 27 Nov 2006 @ 12:50pm

Tribal Law
You'd think they would need tribal "partners" just to ensure the translations are correct. Anyway I agree with Bill, above. This is the case of an enthusiastic attorney, I doubt the "tribal leaders" even know about this.
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|3331373|3|_||3, 27 Nov 2006 @ 1:50pm

Note that in the OP, it says that this is just the "computer input mode" i.e the GUI, not the text input,as I understand it. THe translation need not be that good, after all, many of the terms used in computing in Enlish have different meanings to how they are used in standard English, or are used in different ways. Thus they are not really translating the text, and the only serious translation would be te user manual and the grammar rules, and I would be prepared to bet that they don't support grammar checking in Mapuchee, and the help files can hardly be described as easy for someone who is vaugely competent withthe use of computers to understand, even in Engliosh (you either have to be an over-exciteable kid who doesn' t undestand anything, or someone who does not need the help files anyway, to figure out WTF they ware going on about), so there tribals won't have a hope of understanding them. I would imagine that M$ are just doing this so they can boos the number of languages that Office 2k7 supports, by using a large number of closely related irrellevant languages.
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Rick, 27 Nov 2006 @ 1:56pm

COOL!

I hereby retroactively declare both copyright and patent on the english language.

Anyone reading this and/or able to read this comment now owes me a licensing fee of $100. Renewal of your english license will be mandatory every 10 years, in perpetuity.

Submit funds via paypal to:
iAMaMORON@iOWNeverything.com
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- Nick Burns, 27 Nov 2006 @ 2:25pm
  
  Re:
  Send me your Paypal info so I can send you the licensing fees. Please don't sue me.
  
  Shotgun Spanish!
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