tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Feb 11 20:06:53 1994

Back to archive top level

To this year's listing

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]

Copyrights

There have been some questions about whether posting a list of Klingon
words would be a violation of copyright.

Looking in the Copyright Handbook and from general experience (even given
that copyright law hasn't caught up with the information superhighway) the
answer is YES, posting the dictionary from Okrand's Klingon Dictionary would
be a violation of Federal copyright law.

However, to Paramount, Star Trek fandom is a special case.  The official
word from Paramount (from a posting on Internet) is that, if you ask
Paramount permission, they feel obligated to deny it.  If you don't ask
permission, they don't care.

Realize, that everyone at a Star Trek convention that sells uniform
patterns or props is violating Paramounts copyright of everything that is
Star Trek.  If a Star Trek product does not have the 'circle-C' Paramount
symbol, the copyright police could come down upon the sellor and slap a
major lawsuit.  However, Paramount long ago came to the conclusion that
doing such a thing to its fans, who saved the show back in the 60s, who
believed for decades, bringing the show back from the dead for the Motion
Picture, who make more money for Paramount that any single concept in
television history, doing such a thing would be more costly to their
reputation and revenues than any compensation and fines that could be
imposed by any court.  Pissing off Star Trek fans is considered a poor choice.

So, fear not.  The Paramount Copyright Police will not descend upon us for
using the Klingon Language.  

Just be glad Star Trek isn't owned by Disney.

Kevin A. Geiselman, Knight Errant, c/o [email protected]
Kordite, Chief of Intelligence, IKV Dark Justice, Klingon Assault Group

Back to archive top level