[PODCAST] Priority One Podcast 271 | Featuring Steve Ricossa

winters83 · May 2016

Greetings, Admirals! You’re listening to EPISODE 271 OF PRIORITY ONE PODCAST, your weekly report on all things Star Trek! Available for download or streaming on Monday, May 23rd, 2016 at PriorityOnePodcast.com!

This week we’re Trekking Out the origin of the Klingon language, and we’re also looking at a new device that promises to be a real-life universal translator. In Star Trek Online news, we’re getting you caught up on the latest events, and Executive Producer Steve Ricossa, aka Salami Inferno, joins us to talk about the console launch, Agents of Yesterday and MORE. Later, our Science Advisor, Dr Robert Hurt, brings us the latest report from the Astrometrics Lab.

As usual, before we wrap up the show, we’ll open hailing frequencies for your incoming messages.

TOPICS DISCUSSED
Trek It Out

Star Trek Online News

Astrometrics Report

Light Echoes Give Clues to Protoplanetary Disk (via spitzer.caltech.edu)

This week’s Community Questions:

Should CBS and Paramount be able to claim a copyright for the Klingon language?
What did you think about the new Star Trek TV series teaser?

Let us know YOUR thoughts on this week’s episode by commenting below!

BE SURE TO VISIT OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL AND SUBSCRIBE TO THE PREMIER STAR TREK ONLINE PODCAST!

Priority One Productions is always looking for new team members that have a passion for Star Trek. Please know that all of our positions are volunteer, but we do offer a well-known outlet for your work. If you have a skill that you believe could enhance our content, then send your contact information and experience along with a few writing samples to incoming@priorityonepodcast.com

Did you miss any of our great Blogs last week? Stop by THIS LINK and see for yourself! How about our latest Video Release? You can also follow us on the social media sites! We’re on Facebook! Head over to WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/PRIORITYONEPODCAST and say, “Hi!” Or, Check us out on Twitter via @stopriorityone for show times and other cool stuff.

Liked this episode? Totally hated it? Leave a comment below or CONTACT US via our handy web form! Enjoy the show!

STREAM WHILE YOU PLAY & DOWNLOAD FOR LATER (iTUNES AND MP3):
Web: http://priorityonepodcast.com/po271
iTunes: Priority One Podcast

SUBSCRIBE:
OUR RSS FEED

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER:
STOPriorityONE

tylermaxwell · May 2016

Should CBS and Paramount be able to claim a copyright for the Klingon language?
Yups, of course. The Klingon language (or 'Klingonese') is a fictional construct that was made for its use the Star Trek franchise, full stop. The vast majority of ways that it is ever used is,

In Star Trek itself
By other media in reference to Star Trek, explicitly or implicitly
By people seeking to have a Star Trek-inspired experience (speaking it while in Klingon uniforms, doing faux Klingon opera or drinking songs, etc.)

Much of the argument saying that Klingon can't be copyrighted hinges on the idea that Klingon is a 'living' language, something that has grown beyond the confines of the specific words, phrases, and structures specifically made for Trek, and now belongs to the people who utilize it in their daily lives (somehow). Yet that argument doesn't really stand when you compare Klingon to a 'real' language like English or French or Swahili. 'Real' languages change and evolve over time seemingly by their own volition, with words added to the general lexicon simply by wider use and common agreement; the English dictionary makers didn't just invent new words like "selfie" and "frenemy" for Anglophones to use, random people came up with them and started using them, then more and more people began to use those words in their daily lives until eventually the wider English-speaking community just accepted them as a part of the language, and subsequently codified them in newer dictionaries. By contrast, the Klingon-speaking population doesn't come up with new words on their own, or even borrow them from other languages; I believe that the only person who ever adds any new words, grammar, or anything to the Klingon language is Marc Okrand himself, which generally happens at the behest of CBS/Paramount for one of the shows or movies, or maybe if Okrand wants to put out another edition of the Klingon dictionary.

So while other people may use the language, like they would words or phrases from Shakespeare or their favorite shows and movies, the Klingon language does not grow or develop unless Okrand, and by extension CBS/Paramount, will it to themselves. 'Real' languages are built and developed from the bottom-up, not from the top-down as fictional languages made for copyrighted material like Elvish, Dothraki, and Klingon are.

What did you think about the new Star Trek TV series teaser?
Well...they've got the CGI part down. So we'll definitely see lots of that. Certainly a different look from the other Trek series' that preceded it, I dare say it shares more in common with JJ-land than anything set in the Prime 'verse (not saying that's a bad thing). Other than that, not much solid info in there to glean about the new show, so the waiting continues...

gavinruneblade · May 2016

tylermaxwell wrote: »

Much of the argument saying that Klingon can't be copyrighted hinges on the idea that Klingon is a 'living' language, something that has grown beyond the confines of the specific words, phrases, and structures specifically made for Trek, and now belongs to the people who utilize it in their daily lives (somehow).

From what I know of copyright law trying to claim it as created or not created, lived or real probably wouldn't have much legal power because that only matters to settle who owns the rights, it has no bearing on whether or not language is one of the protectable forms of created work. Klingon is clearly not itself literature thought you can use language to write literature, it is not music, it is not drama though again you can use it to write drama, it is not pantomime, nor is it a visual art, nor a sound recording though you can record copyrightable sounds, nor is it architecture nor a compilation. So that leaves one and only one possible category where it can be protected: as a derivative work. I can see some of the arguments about it being a created language going to show it as fitting into that category.

In any event trying to say "it is a created language so we can protect it" was used by TAC vs Wikipedia and TAC lost that one without it even reaching court. So I don't think any future arguments using that line of logic will be more successful. Though anything is possible until a court officially sets precedent.

Precedent from the Oracle/Google case says languages are collections of words & words are facts and facts are very specifically not one of the categories that can be copyrighted, though you could copyright anything you publish using those words. This is what lead to the API ruling: Java can't be copyrighted but an expression using Java can. By that precedent, this argument goes, klingon can't be copyrighted but the transcript from any episode or movie can.

Now, whether this precedent will hold or be successfully challenged is something I'm interested to see. For myself I don't actually know either way, I'm just enjoying the show.

Humorously, I think the way for cbs/paramount to bypass this whole argument is to code a script that mashes out every possible combination of klingon words and phrases in a massive block and copyright that. Thus any attempt to publish anything using klingon would plagiarise some portion of the copyrighted text. Regardless of the status of klingon as a language, this is 100% guaranteed to work because we do know that you CAN copyright documents. It is also technologically unfeasible at the present time.

[PODCAST] Priority One Podcast 271 | Featuring Steve Ricossa

Comments