Owning Rights To A Language?
November 25th, 2006
The Mapuche Indians in Chile are suing Microsoft (in Chilean courts) for translating Microsoft Windows into Mapuzugun, a Mapuche language. The Indians are contending that Microsoft needed their permission to utilize the language.
It seems to me that the real problem is a cultural clash between the technology of the West and the lifestyle of an indigenous people, and the court case is merely the Indians’ best way of responding to it.
Link: http://today.reuters.com/…
(via Slashdot)
