tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Aug 28 13:50:34 1997
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A new weapon?
- From: "Duncan Barrett" <[email protected]>
- Subject: A new weapon?
- Date: Thu, 28 Aug 1997 21:52:16 +0100
It occurred to me whilst reading Chet Braun's message on the bet'leH book
that MO might (unintentionally) have set up a rather interesting (and
potentially) useful situation:
Paramount claim exclusive rights to the language + things said in it and
vehemently prevent anyone else from using it to earn profit. However this
claim carries with it a high level of responsibility.
KGT is an "official" Paramount book, but the trade name puns that MO
included in it were probably unknown to the company (as we have seen, no one
there seems capable of handling ta' Hol). Their reaction to the bet'leH
book means that should the trade name companies decide to get angry about it
Paramount could have a hard job shifting responsibility.
So, perhaps Mr Okrand has given us something to bargain with - if the trade
name companies get angry then Paramount might decide to pass the
responsibility over to us (the linguists) and MO in order to avoid a
corporate fight. This would put us back in control of the language but
there could be a downside: If the trade name companies decided to fight *us*
we might be ill-equipped to defend ourselves, while Paramount would have
their teams of lawyers on the case immediately should the finger point at
them.
However, we don't know that the trade name companies wouldn't *appreciate*
the extra publicity - ideally, they would welcome a sparring match with
Viacom (as it might reap *huge* rewards) but realise, if the buck were
passed to us, that we would not really be worth attacking.
So, essentially, we may have a choice - whether to try and put the Klingon
language under our control to a greater extent, but risk a nasty
dissagreement, or to stick with it how it is and hope the trade name
companies don't notice.
Anyway, just a thougt I had.
Duncan
ps. Sorry if I rambled a bit - it's late and I'm exhausted (and possibly a
bit paranoid!). Also, sorry for the repeated use of "Trade Name
Companies" - I couldn't be bothered to think of a shorter name for them.