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Too Much Free Time

by Mike Masnick

Thu, Feb 5th 2009 3:02am




Filed Under:
copyright, laws, poetry, yehuda berlinger


Intellectual Property Laws... Rewritten As Poetry

from the did-you-copyright-that dept

Damn. Techdirt reader Yehuda Berlinger alerts us to the fact that he recently completed rewriting UK Copyright Law, in verse. Yes, he's reimagined the law as a poem. Here's just a clip:
3
You copyright books
And programs, all sized
Written or recorded
Even unauthorized

3A

Databases, too,
By which they mean lists
Of things, are also
In this here gist

4

Art includes maps
And casts of all sorts
Buildings and sketches
So on and so forth
And it's not just UK Copyright Law. He's actually done US Copyright Law, Canadian Copyright Law, US Patent Law and US Trademark Law. It's impressive, to say the least. Berlinger is the first to admit that the poetry isn't particularly good, but says "that's part of the point." He says he does it "because I want to read the actual copyright codes, but can't do it unless I'm entertaining myself in the process. Also, writing summations of each section helps me to remember." Check them all out...

5 Comments | Leave a Comment

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  1.  
    identicon
    Twinrova, Feb 5th, 2009 @ 3:51am

    Cute.

    But the K-mart reference should be "blue lighted", not "red lighted".

    Copyright's pretty pathetic when you read it in verse.

    Shameful, actually.©

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  2.  
    identicon
    yogi, Feb 5th, 2009 @ 4:09am

    Awesome

    But isn't it infringement? Can someone legally poetize the copyright code? It's just not right!

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  3.  
    icon
    Ben (profile), Feb 5th, 2009 @ 9:37am

    Re: Awesome

    You have but to read...

    Nothing the government
    Makes is copyrighted
    But they can buy copyrights
    At K-mart sales, red-lighted

    ... so of course it isn't infringement since the government can't copyright the copyright code.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  4.  
    identicon
    Relonar, Feb 5th, 2009 @ 10:33am

    besides being an epic post, I just may read over parts of that actual docs now, as it seems most everything makes some sort of sense...until you hit audio...wtf, just, wtf :(

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  5.  
    identicon
    Xiera, Feb 5th, 2009 @ 12:05pm

    Re: Cute.

    [[But the K-mart reference should be "blue lighted", not "red lighted".]]

    But that's the punny part! :(

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]


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