Egypt plans to "copyright antiquities" such as Sphinx, Pyramids
Lawmakers in Egypt are expected to sign into law a requirement that royalties be paid whenever a copy is made of Egyptian antiquities such as the pyramids.
Link (thanks, Robbo, and everyone else who suggested this!)Zahi Hawass, who chairs Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, told the BBC the law would apply in all countries. The money was needed to maintain thousands of pharaonic sites, he said.
Correspondents say the law will deal a blow to themed resorts across the world where large-scale copies of Egyptian artefacts are a crowd-puller. Mr Hawass said the law would apply to full-scale replicas of any object in any museum in Egypt.
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sounds like one of them pyramid schemes
Phhpht. It's called sovereignty. We don't have to pay shit.
Good luck collecting.
Are the collectors allowed to curse?
sounds perfectly logical to me, and very much in line with world economic trends
i already thought that many world icons were already copyrighted
Oooo! I should've known Hawass was behind this from the headline. He is nothing but a gigantic moron.
According to *this* article the law will only apply to exact copies of the pyramid, so the Luxor hotel is apparently safe. Of course, this makes the law trivially easy to bypass, so the definition of 'copy' will be tightened fairly quickly.
I'm not sure how they can make it apply in other countries, though. I'm not a lawyer, but I would have thought that this goes way beyond the Berne Convention and could thus be simply ignored. Egypt relies on the rest of the world too much to try pushing this one too hard.
Aarghh!! I forgot the link:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/12/26/2127542.htm
umm, isn't it old enough to be in public domain?
If the royalties are being paid to the government, this is really more of a tax.
I'm with the Egyptians on this. Especially when that ghastly hotel in Las Vegas promotes itself as 'the only pyramid shaped building in the world'. Er...hang on...
In other news, I'm copywriting the complete works of William Shakespeare effective immediately. Start sending me money.
Hey did I mention I just copyrighted the triangle? You people are so screwed.
Iraq should pass a law saying writing was first invented in ancient Mesopotamia, and it has a copyright on all writing. Therefore all countries that use writing (including Egypt) should pay royalties on all writing, including all books, advertisements, websites, signages, etc.
There is a reason the public domain exists, and there is a reason copyrights do not last forever. Dr Hawass has our sympathies. Yes, Egypt needs money to maintain it's many historical sites. But this is not the way to go about getting it.
Maybe Hawass can just put out another crappy "King Tut" exhibit to raise money.
/Yes, I paid to see it. Yes, it was the worst money I've spent in a long time.
Start looking for copies of the Sphinx with its nose restored.
By this logic, oughtn't the Jews actually own the copyright on the pyramids, et al?
Egypt can copyright whatever it wants - and enforce it within Egypt. In other countries it becomes an issue of International Treaties respecting foreign copyright and allowing suits for damages.
I *seriously* doubt any other country is going to uphold/respect a retroactive copyright on landmarks. China will just laugh hysterically as always , and the US/EU will just look dumbfounded and say "um, no".
@License Farm
Most historians don't believe that the jews built the pyramids and Zahi Hawass certainly doesn't.
Prior art much?
@RedMage13
Aztecs?
@ Brett: Well, if we're going to split hairs here, most historians don't believe there was such a people known as The Jews at the time, and were not formally until the Deutoronomical Congress turned what had been a disorganized tribal oral tradition into a codified faith. On the other hand, the current residents of the land of Egypt are not thought to be the same ones of the Pharaonic Age.
I thought after 50 years copyrights on work ends. This is at least 2500 years old, so I'd imagine that'd be a little bit of a legal hurdle to jump. It might be nice to see all that tacky Egyptian crap tacked all over Vegas to get taken down.
In a serious vein, I was thinking this could effect museums. When they host traveling exhibitions from Egypt they pay to do so. But they also make a fair amount off of stuff they sell in the store. Museums in Chicago with large permanent egypt exhibits do a brisk business in Egyptian thingamabobs. The Egyptian government could make all kinds of headaches for Museums and other learning institutions with this kind of nonsense. I could see them withdrawing exhibits or demanding big chunks of royalties. In the end, either the museums will pay out or, more likely, go with other exhibitions. In the case of the latter, Egypt gets dick.
#23: Bear in mind that the 50 year limit is set by law. The Egyptian parliament, by definition, writes the law.
Not if I copyright them FIRST. . . then I can be like Captain Beefheart, and "Sue Egypt."