Copy Fight
Yoga!
"India seems to be willing to go to the mat over yoga.
That's because Bikram Choudhury, the self-proclaimed Hollywood 'yoga teacher to the stars,' incensed his native country by getting a U.S. copyright on his style of yoga four years ago."
My interest in yoga is right up there with my interest in non-Pixar car racing, but this sends the science fiction writer in me into overload. Basically, "Bikram" copyrighted his yoga, so that you can't teach it (or practice it) without sending dough his way. This, quite naturally, angered the Indian government, yoga being a centuries old tradition and one of their biggest exports, along with technicolor musicals that don't make a lick of sense.
And it angered me.
Think about it. Yoga is a physical exercise, something YOU perform with YOUR body. Coprighting Yoga is akin to copyrighting knuckle cracking- I take out a patent, and every time you crack your knuckles you should send me a dollar. Does that make sense? Can one person copyright what another person DOES?
Am I making too much of this? Let me drive the point home by referring you to the OTHER big physical Indian export, the Kama Sutra. Supposing I become a sexual therapist, copyright the Kama Sutra positions so that every time your agile self gets caught in one of them (probably by accident) you are breaking copyright law- unless you get a license that allows you to perform that kind of sex?
Is that not one VERY SMALL step away from copyrighting sex itself?
There's totally a horror story in there.
3 comments :
Actually, patent law works almost like that. Let's say, for example, that I were to take out a patent on a certain acrobatic sexual manouvre known as the slippery slide, now, I couldn't really charge people every time they performed it, but I could charge them a percentage of their profits if they were making money doing it. Like Michael Jackson does to Paul McCartney when he sings a Beatles song.
So if I copyrighted a given ancient sexual technique- such as, hmmm, I dunno, MISSIONARY, every time a hooker or porn star performed it, making a profit from it, I would be entitled to a share.
Copyright law is all shades of shady.
if i copyright the push-up can i make the milatary give me a percentage of thier profit?
Post a Comment