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...

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: copyright, laws, poetry, yehuda berlinger

7 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

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.©
[ link to this | view in thread ]
yogi, 5 Feb 2009 @ 4:09am

Awesome
But isn't it infringement? Can someone legally poetize the copyright code? It's just not right!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
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.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
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 :(
[ link to this | view in thread ]
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! :(
[ link to this | view in thread ]
sarah shahzad (profile), 11 Feb 2020 @ 4:03am

hi
thanks for sharing this <a href="https://poemtheart.com">Goodbye Poems</a>
[ link to this | view in thread ]
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
[ link to this | view in thread ]