Traditional Tribal Dance... Now Covered By Intellectual Property

from the don't-dance-it! dept

Remember a few years back when the "inventor" of the electric slide claimed to own the intellectual property on the dance and sent takedown notices to those who were using it without paying up? Well, let's take that even further. A whole bunch of folks have been sending in the story that the New Zealand government has agreed to give intellectual property rights on an ancient tribal dance back to that tribal group. The group says they're trying to defend the dance from being exploited commercially, which "undermines" the "significance" of the dance.

I can certainly understand why they might be upset from a traditional angle, but it seems fairly ridiculous that you can tell people how they can and cannot dance. And, in fact, my guess is that eventually this tribal group will regret this decision. If you cannot easily spread and share an ancient culture, you are pretty much guaranteeing that it will die out.

Filed Under: dance, haka, intellectual property, maori, new zealand