Intellectual Property Laws... Rewritten As Poetry

from the did-you-copyright-that dept

Thu, Feb 5th 2009 3:02am — Mike Masnick

Damn. Techdirt reader Yehuda Berlinger alerts us to the fact that he recently completed rewriting UK Copyright Law, in verse. Yes, he's reimagined the law as a poem. Here's just a clip:

3
You copyright books
And programs, all sized
Written or recorded
Even unauthorized

3A

Databases, too,
By which they mean lists
Of things, are also
In this here gist

4

Art includes maps
And casts of all sorts
Buildings and sketches
So on and so forth

And it's not just UK Copyright Law. He's actually done US Copyright Law, Canadian Copyright Law, US Patent Law and US Trademark Law. It's impressive, to say the least. Berlinger is the first to admit that the poetry isn't particularly good, but says "that's part of the point." He says he does it "because I want to read the actual copyright codes, but can't do it unless I'm entertaining myself in the process. Also, writing summations of each section helps me to remember." Check them all out...

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Filed Under: copyright, laws, poetry, yehuda berlinger

7 Comments

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Twinrova, 5 Feb 2009 @ 3:51am

Cute.
But the K-mart reference should be "blue lighted", not "red lighted".

Copyright's pretty pathetic when you read it in verse.

Shameful, actually.©
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- Xiera, 5 Feb 2009 @ 12:05pm
  
  Re: Cute.
  [[But the K-mart reference should be "blue lighted", not "red lighted".]]
  
  But that's the punny part! :(
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yogi, 5 Feb 2009 @ 4:09am

Awesome
But isn't it infringement? Can someone legally poetize the copyright code? It's just not right!
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- Ben (profile), 5 Feb 2009 @ 9:37am
  
  Re: Awesome
  You have but to read...
  
  Nothing the government
  Makes is copyrighted
  But they can buy copyrights
  At K-mart sales, red-lighted
  
  ... so of course it isn't infringement since the government can't copyright the copyright code.
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Relonar, 5 Feb 2009 @ 10:33am

besides being an epic post, I just may read over parts of that actual docs now, as it seems most everything makes some sort of sense...until you hit audio...wtf, just, wtf :(
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sarah shahzad (profile), 11 Feb 2020 @ 4:03am

hi
thanks for sharing this <a href="https://poemtheart.com">Goodbye Poems</a>
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sarah shahzad (profile), 4 Mar 2020 @ 3:24am

is so convincing that I never stop myself to say something about it. You’re doing a great job Man. Best I have read today :) I miss you poems
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