Re: copyright -- way past vs right now

Lief M. Hendrickson (hendrick@NOSC.MIL)
Tue, 7 Feb 1995 22:54:30 PST

On Feb 7, Robert Johnson disparagingly wrote:

> Lets get this straight. Because indigenous peoples for the most part
> don't have written ie Western forms of cultural expression they're
> not going to get copyright protection? You guys are going to have to
> start reading within the discipline, educating yourselves as to legal
> developments both international and U.S., and start getting over
> your ethnocentric, patronizing, racially motivated nonsense.
> There does seem to be an eternal monopoly on stupidity in
> certain sectors of anthropology!

Your above reaction, Mr. Johnson, is truely incredible. However,
you do prove to be a holder of your referenced monopoly.

For starters, my Feb. 6 post you referenced said absolutely
nothing about indigenous peoples. It was a simple factual
statement describing the nature of copyrights. A "tangible
form or expression", refered to in my Feb 6 post, can be almost
anything. It is not limited to "Western forms of cultural
expression". Some examples: application form PA is used for
musical works; application Form VA is used for pictorial,
graphical, and cultural works.

You're a real trouble maker, Mr. Johnson. My Feb 6 post was
merely a simple response to a question of whether a copyright has
a time limit. It does. That's how it is. Send a letter to the
Register of Copyrights if you don't like it. Be sure to include
your views on indigenous peoples in your letter. Express them in
your own words though...if you can!