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<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff face=Arial size=2><SPAN
class=930173217-12072001>Mark,</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff face=Arial size=2><SPAN
class=930173217-12072001></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=930173217-12072001>Yeah,
I know of several cases of this sort ot thing. Actually, as you no doubt know,
this is an old story in Americanist linguistics, going back a century or
more. A lot of the Berkeley linguists especially began to think of
languages as "their" languages. It was both selfish and
paternalistic. I've always lectured my students against such proprietary
thoughts; it takes a whole team of good linguists to document a language
thoroughly. I don't think that one person working alone could ever do it
justice.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff face=Arial size=2><SPAN
class=930173217-12072001></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=930173217-12072001>There
are amusing stories of the infamous John P. Harrington hiding his notes away in
peoples attics so that Franz Boas couldn't get his hands on them. If you
have never read the book "Encounter with an Angry God", you really ought
to. It is about Harrington (a very talented linguist, but paranoid)
written by his ex-wife, Carobeth Laird. </SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff face=Arial size=2><SPAN
class=930173217-12072001></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff face=Arial size=2><SPAN
class=930173217-12072001>Nowadays, of course, the proprietary notions all come
under the guise of "political correctness", but it sure smells like the same old
dead rat to me. :-) </SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff face=Arial size=2><SPAN
class=930173217-12072001></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=930173217-12072001>By the
way, maybe I should clarify my position. I think things like stories,
songs, particular prayers or rituals, etc. can certainly be intellectual
property (although I expect it would be difficult to determine whose a lot of
the time). There've been many cases where such things have been ripped
off, but I know that among Dhegiha speakers many songs are property of a
particular family or clan. I certainly have no argument with that, but I'm
glad I don't have to sort it all out!</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff face=Arial size=2><SPAN
class=930173217-12072001></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=930173217-12072001>Sounds
to me like you've picked a really interesting and current topic. I'll look
forward to reading it sometime when you've finished.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff face=Arial size=2><SPAN
class=930173217-12072001></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff face=Arial size=2><SPAN
class=930173217-12072001>Best,</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff face=Arial size=2><SPAN
class=930173217-12072001></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff face=Arial size=2><SPAN
class=930173217-12072001>Bob</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff face=Arial size=2><SPAN
class=930173217-12072001></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">
<DIV><FONT color=#000000 size=2></FONT><FONT size=2>Bob:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>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. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>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.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>best</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>uthixide</FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><B>-----Original Message-----</B><BR><B>From:
</B>Rankin, Robert L <<A
href="mailto:rankin@ku.edu">rankin@ku.edu</A>><BR><B>To: </B><A
href="mailto:'siouan@lists.colorado.edu'">'siouan@lists.colorado.edu'</A>
<<A
href="mailto:siouan@lists.colorado.edu">siouan@lists.colorado.edu</A>><BR><B>Date:
</B>Wednesday, July 11, 2001 12:56 PM<BR><B>Subject: </B>RE: language as
property, follow-up<BR><BR></DIV></FONT>
<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>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">
<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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