tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu May 10 19:52:47 2001
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Re: *Paramount* chaw'
ja' ro'Han:
>chaw' jIneHchugh paqvaD tlhIngan Hol lo', *Paramount Pictures*vaD jabbI'ID
>jIghItlh'a'?
tlhIngan Hol Dalo'chugh neH, mub 'e' vInoH jIH. Hol vIlo'meH chaw'
vIpoQbe'chu' jIH. 'ach tlhIngan pong'e' Dalo'DI', QobchoHbej ghu'.
>If I want permission to use Klingon in a book, do I write to Paramount
>Pictures?
If all you're going to do is *use* it, I firmly believe that you don't need
anyone's permission. Viacom (Paramount's parent company) almost certainly
has lawyers who believe otherwise, but I think there's enough legal
precedent to maintain that languages themselves cannot be copyrighted.
Unfortunately, as a big-pockets corporation, Viacom can probably break
anyone who tries to fight them on the issue.
As soon as you use the *name* "Klingon" without permission in a commercial
work, however, you definitely run afoul of certain Intellectual Property
laws.
>Who coins new Klingon words? Is the KLI able to do it, or is it solely the
>prerogative of Paramount and/or Dr Okrand?
For the purposes of the Klingon language studied and used by the majority
of the people on this mailing list, Marc Okrand is the only official source
of new information. He'll sometimes do amazing things to accommodate the
unlearned Star Trek writers' concoctions, so a lot of what comes out of the
actors' mouths on TV is at least worth listening to, but it's not {ta' Hol}
unless Okrand says it is.
I'm not quite entitled to speak for the KLI on matters of policy, but the
two people who *are* so entitled have clearly and consistently indicated
that the KLI does not invent vocabulary. (That position has to be
understood in the context of the fact that the tlhIngan Hol name of the KLI
contains the word {yejHaD}. At the time of the KLI's inception, it wasn't
a known word, nor did its creation follow any known word-formation rules.
Knowledge of the language was a bit...unsteady back then. And Okrand later
did "reveal" a number of words for groups and organizations, including
{yejHaD} "institute, institution".)
-- ghunchu'wI' 'utlh