By CaulynDarr


doink, doink
Paramount thinks they own the Klingon Language.  The Language Creation Society begs to differ. They have enlisted the help of First Amendment bad-ass Mark Randazza.

You may remember him as the guy who defended TastyTaste against that lawsuit from Battlefoam a few years back.  This time he filed an epic amicus brief in support of Axanar.
Now that Klingon has become an actual living language, Paramount seeks to reach out and stake its ownership by using copyright law. But, as “Klingons do not surrender”, neither do those who speak Klingon. Star Trek: The Next Generation, “The Emissary” (orig. air June 29, 1989) (stardate 42901.3). 
It's a lot more of that plus text in Klingon.  You should read it here.  Or more about it at popehat.

The legal arguments are interesting.  You can't own copywrite on a programming language, so I can't see why you should own one on a spoken or written language either.

Outside of the legal stuff, there's some big moral questions here.  To me it feels like media companies like Paramount and CBS are trying to claim ownership on culture itself.  Star Trek has become so pervasive to our society.  It's ideas are ubiquitous in modern culture.  Even the expansion of our technology is driven by the show.

It is also the work of thousands of writers, artists and actors. While you might be able to have legal claim to ownership, I think morally, its a gigantic act of hubris.  In fact, that legal ownership is only because companies like Paramount have re-written the rules of intellectual property to suit their own needs over the common good.