Finns And Norwegians Argue Over Who Owns The Northern Lights
from the alaska? dept
Perhaps it's because I live in the US, but I always associated the Northern Lights/Aurora Borealis with Alaska. Apparently, over in Europe, they associate it with some Scandanavian countries... but apparently there's a bit of a fight over which one. Matthew A. Sawtell alerts us to what he refers to as "a sign of the times," in which Norwegians and Finns are fighting over who "owns" the Aurora Borealis. Apparently, the Norwegians believe that their country is most regularly associated with the phenomenon. But Finland has just kicked off a tourism campaign that focuses on highlighting that you can see the Northern Lights from Finland. And the Norwegians are none too pleased:The tension was triggered by a short film that the Finnish Tourist Board posted on its channel on video-sharing platform YouTube, featuring time-lapse footage of the aurora in Finnish Lapland. The film has been viewed almost 400,000 times since September, prompting Norwegians to complain that the Finns are trying to "steal" the northern lights.The idea of ownership over shared things is getting downright ridiculous.
"We can not stand by and watch the Finns try to grab a bigger share" of the northern lights market, said Per-Arne Tuftin of Innovation Norway, a state-owned company that promotes tourism in Norway. "We will not give up -- the northern lights will be ours," he told the Troms&ostrok;-based newspaper Nordlys, whose name translates appropriately as Northern Lights. Back in 2009, Innovation Norway launched a campaign to brand the northern lights as a Norwegian phenomenon.
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Filed Under: finland, northern lights, norway, ownership
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Downright Ridiculous
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You can see the Northern Lights from Ontario (um, the one in Canada).
We don't "own" them. Nobody does.
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If your only selling point for the entire country is you can see the lights, you should not be trying to attract people to the country.
A smart response would have been saying you can see them there, or you could see them here and all of the other beautiful things in Norway.
This is stupid, we don't want to compete so they are stealing from us... where do they get this crappy business mod... oh wait I figured it out.
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Innovation Norway.
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And their spokesman said -
"We will not give up -- the northern lights will be ours,"
So unless they are going to be all Montgomery Burns about it and build a giant disc to block the sky from Finland, he needs to be fired. Rather than compete, he wants to engage in a stupid battle that serves no one - except maybe Finland who are just saying... We've got lights to, and we don't have dreams of owning the whole sky.
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Yes I got that.
Maybe my head cold is worse that I thought, I was referring to the fact that it seems like now any group or piece of legislation can be expected to do the exact opposite of what the name implies...so my comment was a duh (not directed at The Right Honorable TAC) but referring to the name Innovation Norway and the implication that with such a name there is a near zero probability they will actually do anything innovative.
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Fighting children
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Sounds to me as if this is the free market at work...competitors trying to one up each other by connecting with fans and giving them a reason to buy.
Nothing quite like freezing your *** off to see a light show that is quite easily visible from more hospitable climes.
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My money is on Finland
Full disclosure: I think Finland is one of the most beautiful places in the world. I've been there summer and winter and it is a wonderful place.
Anyway, that's nothing. Here in the US we have major cities involved in an argument over who is going to be most known for brutalizing people trying to exercise their First Amendment rights.
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I own the rights...
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Re: I own the rights...
If however your name was Thor there would be no dispute.
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The quotes read like something written for the Onion. Are you sure this isn't a joke?
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I was thinking the exact same thing.
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No, I think you need to go right to... LUDICROUS SPEED! Though I do agree, trying to claim ownership of a natural phenomenon makes about as much sense as Spaceball 1 going to plaid.
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I own the air you breathe. Now pay up!!
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SOPA again
Each side would be able to claim "infringement" of their northern lights copyrights/patent/trademark (etc you get the point) and shut the other's tourism board websites down.....
Is THAT what you want? Justin Bieber being totally removed from the net by Lady Gaga, who then gets rid of all of her musi.....no wait...stop....forget I just said that part!
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Now for the rest of the quote...
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No-one owns them
Norway often have a misplaced sense of ownership, for instance they think the all the whales in the sea are theirs to kill.
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As for the story, well I've not seen this much idiocy surrounding the northern lights since Americans decided to rename it The Golden Compass ;)
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OK, I won the SUN and want...
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Re: OK, I won the SUN and want...
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There's no need for the Finns or the Norwegians to get all hot and bothered ;
Henri
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I own sunrises, and have a patent pending on sunsets.
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Russia
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WTF!?!
Are these idiots going to sue people for infringement if we happen to see the northern lights from Glasgow (Scotland) or even London (England)?
This whole thing is just stupid and idiotic and one more reason to dig a hole and hide in it until the world ends.
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Our Partial Apologies
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1) The Finns are completely crazy. The northern lights are visible from northern Norway 80% of the time, while they are only visible from northern Finland 75% of the time. How can they want tourists to visit them with only 75% chance of northern lights instead of 80%? They're insane!
2) We are simple people in Scandinavia, still used to the old ways of using stealing and owning things as metaphors when talking about markets. Much like Apple owning the mp3-player market and Pepsi stealing 5% of the cola market from Coca Cola last year.
We haven't yet grasped the new ways of trademarking, copyrighting or perhaps patenting the northern lights and enforcing our rights via lawsuits, or if that fails lobbying for stricter celestial penomenon rights. We'll catch up soon though.
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We do not recognize any borders
No one is useless to our own glory, we walk freely in the sky.
The Northen Lights
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