language as property, follow-up

[Mark Awakuni-Swetland]

12 July 2001
Bob:
Yes, a common (although not exclusive) theme running through these situations seems to be the role of self-serving outsiders. I have not been able to sort out the exact beginning or catalyst for the example I posted. However, it clearly has one or more non-community/non-Tribal-type folks sitting in the background. 

I posed several questions to the community member "writer" of the draft resolution about such things as unenforcability of the proposed law, academic cooling towards the community, disfranchisement of unenrolled members, the divisive impact it would have on the community, and the potential for extreme political manipulation of the language. The responses given made it clear that the person either 1) just had not thought out much of the details of the possible impact of the resolution, or 2) the "writer" was just fronting something instigated elsewhere. Whatever the case, it will require some more investigation on my part.

best
uthixide
    -----Original Message-----
    From: Rankin, Robert L <rankin at ku.edu>
    To: 'siouan at lists.colorado.edu' <siouan at lists.colorado.edu>
    Date: Wednesday, July 11, 2001 12:56 PM
    Subject: RE: language as property, follow-up
    
    
    Mark and others,
     
    I just returned from the SSILA meetings in Santa Barbara and was talking about this question with some other linguists. I think there is one more interesting point to be made. It has to do with, yes, lawyers. It seems that, at least in the Southwest, there are law firms that have caught on to this movement and are going from tribe to tribe soliciting business (and of course high fees) for "helping them copyright the language". It has apparently become something of a racket -- a kind of ethnographic ambulance chasing. It seems to me that copyright lawyers must already know what the chances of copyrighting nouns and verb conjugations are and are simply milking naive clients for every penny they can get. If words were copyrightable, I suspect that mobile home firm wouldn't be selling Winnebago RV's any more. Just one more scam for tribes to watch out for. 
     
    Bob
    
        I just wanted to acknowledge all of the fine thoughts you shared on the topic of language as property. Your comments did not fall into a black hole. It has given me some more grist for the dissertation mill.

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