Programmers: license for SignWriting symbols (ISWA)

[Charles Butler]

I am concerned that we need a very clear statement that works in Sign Writing as rendering of language still retain all the normal protections of creative works.

If I write a novel in ASL or Libras, I should still be able to copyright that novel regardless of the language or the writing system in which it is produced.  The person is not paying for the alphabet, they are paying for the novel.  

If I develop a sign language learning game, using ASL or Libras words transcribed in SW, the words themselves cost nothing, but the learning game is copyrightable, and sellable, as an idea.  

If someone, such as Valerie Sutton, renders the Sleeping Beauty ballet as choreographed by  Isadora Duncan, then three works are involved, the Dance Writing which as a system is free, the choreography of Isadora Duncan, for which Ms. Duncan's Estate should receive a fee, and Valerie Sutton herself for the dance transcription as a creative work.  Sheet Dance, like Sheet Music, is a finished work, not the symbols used to write it.

Charles Butler

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