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<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=270354817-11072001>Mark
and others,</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff face=Arial size=2><SPAN
class=270354817-11072001></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=270354817-11072001>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. </SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff face=Arial size=2><SPAN
class=270354817-11072001></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff face=Arial size=2><SPAN
class=270354817-11072001>Bob</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
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<DIV><FONT size=2>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.</FONT></DIV>
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