22 April 2007
Onomastician and toponymist Kelsie Harder died at this home on 12 April. He was 84. He was the editor of the Illustrated Dictionary of Place Names and numerous other works about names. His NY Times obituary is here.
Rules For The Revolution: Fair Use
21 April 2007
From time to time we discuss issues having to do with copyright and intellectual property here at Wordorigins.org. For those interested, there is a fairly new podcast on the subject called Rules For The Revolution. It’s hosted by Colette Vogele, an intellectual property lawyer here in the Bay Area and a non-resident fellow at Stanford’s Center for Internet & Society. Rules For The Revolution is geared primarily for those producing podcasts (lots of discussion about copyright of audio), but it is also of interest to anyone who is producing or using any kind of copyrighted material.
Episode 11 of the RFTR podcast is all about fair use of copyrighted material. It features an interview with Tony Falzone, executive director of the Stanford Fair Use Project. If you’ve ever wanted a concise, legal interpretation of the fair use doctrine give this a listen. You can also subscribe via iTunes. The RFTR podcast is free.
Bad Chinese Translations
20 April 2007
We’re all familiar with bad translations into English. They’re a staple of many comedy routines. But this one reported by MSNBC takes the cake.
Bad Chinese Translations
20 April 2007
We’re all familiar with bad translations into English. They’re a staple of many comedy routines. But this one reported by MSNBC takes the cake.
In Passing: Robert Barnhart
14 April 2007
Robert Barnhart, lexicographer and editor of the Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology and other works, passed away on 9 April at the age of 73.
His obituary in the Journal News, the local paper for Putnam and Westchester counties in New York, can be read here.
