Re: thought for the week

On 29 Jul 1999, Seth P. Johnson <seth.johnson[_at_]realmeasures.dyndns.org> wrote:
>
> "Copyright" is a misnomer. What's important is authorial rights.

It's only a misnomer if you misunderstand it to mean "the right to copy," with copy as a verb. The actual origin of the term refers to the right to the copy, with "copy" as a noun, and used in the sense of the content of the work (a sense that survives in terms like a newspaper's "copy desk" or "copy editor").

(Similarly, Crayola recently renamed its former "Indian Red" crayon, because of the mistaken perception that the color referred to the skin color of Native Americans. In fact, it was named for a soil pigment commonly found in India. The new color name is "Chestnut," chosen by contest. Contest winners received the niggardly award of a box of 64 crayons.)

-- 
Terry Carroll         |
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