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Rosetta Stone copyright | ||
Tags: Copyright | Rosetta Stone | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| logger Newbie United States Joined 4863 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes | Message 1 of 7 03 August 2011 at 1:52am | IP Logged | |||||
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Rosetta Stone: Does anyone know what the company has actually copyrighted? What is actually proprietary? There are many image-based methods and I know you can't copyright "multiple choice". Is it their word list? Just the software source code?
I am working with a group trying to revitalize a small language. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| numerodix Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 6783 days ago 856 posts - 1226 votes  Speaks: EnglishC2*, Norwegian*, Polish*, Italian, Dutch, French Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin | Message 2 of 7 03 August 2011 at 2:44am | IP Logged | |||||
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What you're talking about is patents, not copyright. You can't patent a method, you can't
copyright it. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| logger Newbie United States Joined 4863 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes | Message 3 of 7 03 August 2011 at 8:10am | IP Logged | |||||
OK thanks I guess patent applies, not copyright. Is it true that you cannot patent a method? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Spanky Senior Member Canada Joined 5956 days ago 1021 posts - 1714 votes Studies: French | Message 4 of 7 03 August 2011 at 8:24am | IP Logged | |||||
It is not a question which necessarily has a straightforward answer, and given that you have not restricted your inquiry in a geographical sense, it is not a question to which there is a universal answer, as the law varies from country to country. I do not practice in the area of intellectual property, but I believe there is or may be a significant difference between Canada and the United States, for example, as to whether business method patents are recognized or possible. I am waiting, frankly, for the more expected response from the forum members: regardless of whether the Rosetta Stone method is protected, why would one want to copy it? (I don't speak from experience here, I just like jumping on bandwagons.) Edited by Spanky on 03 August 2011 at 8:26am 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6011 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 5 of 7 03 August 2011 at 8:55am | IP Logged | |||||
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As Spanky says, there's no straightforward answer, even once you're talking about an individual country/state, because intellectual property law is very fuzzy.
Most copyright laws use the term "substantial portions" or similar, but what is "substantial"? If you were to copy all the prompts from Rosetta Stone, you would definitely be in trouble. If you copied 50% of them, you'd probably still be in trouble (things like the on the plane, in the plane, under the plane would be particularly conspicuous). Two of the problems here are the idea of "typographical settings" and "database rights". A "typographical setting" is basically a compilation (it's a term used in the UK, I don't know about the US, but there'll be something similar). If I was to release a collection of selected 12th century poems, you could copy any individual poem, but reprinting the work in its entirety would infringe my right to that specific edition. (This problem will be familiar to church-goers when the church buys new hymn books: "hymn number 256 in the old books, hymn number 317 in the new books". And they even make a specific point of dropping verses in certain editions and claim that as an individual typographical setting. Surprisingly cut-throat business, the Christian publishing world....) "Database rights" is a new idea, reflecting the fact that modern companies put a lot of time and money into gathering data that is not considered a "creative work" and hence not covered by traditional copyright. Anyway, if you really want to copy Rosetta Stone (and as Spanky says, why on Earth would you want to do that?) have a look at LiveMocha.com and look at where they've introduced the differences -- they've been going several years and haven't been sued. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| DavidW Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6526 days ago 318 posts - 458 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French, Italian, Persian, Malay Studies: Russian, Arabic (Written), Portuguese, German, Urdu | Message 6 of 7 03 August 2011 at 3:58pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Software patents are granted in the USA. It appears to be a bit of a mess, where if you
want to write a piece of software, you need a team of lawyers to research thousands of existing patents, and make sure your not infringing on any. If you wanted to release your software to the USA, you'd be subject to this. In Europe software patents are generally not granted, but something like Rosetta Stone might qualify for a different kind of patent, I don't know. Can you patent methods of teaching languages? I hope not. As Cainntear said, the actual content, and the computer code itself (if you could ever get hold of it..) would be subject to traditional copyright, like for books. I've heard when academics want to document a rare language, one of the things they do is produce bilingual texts and recordings. They are not difficult to produce, you just need a bilingual speaker of the language, and some material to translate. You can produce good audio recordings of the speaker reading the text with inexpensive equipment (i.e. Samson USB mics and Zoom portable recorders). It also makes excellent study material. Edited by DavidW on 03 August 2011 at 4:17pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| logger Newbie United States Joined 4863 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes | Message 7 of 7 03 August 2011 at 5:06pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Thank you for the replies. Very enlightening. The materials would not be used to generate profit, but as study aids for the young people.
I agree with what DavidW said "Can you patent methods of teaching languages? I hope not." 1 person has voted this message useful |
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